Conor Garland had an opportunity on a breakaway in the first period, but he converted when it was counted to get the go-ahead goal.
“It was a fake shot, I just tried to freeze him. He’s [Stuart Skinner] a good goalie and did a really, really good job on the breakaway staying with me there, so it’s going to be hard to beat throughout the series and it’s going to be a hard team to beat,” Garland said.
Even when their group was down 4-1, they continued to be disciplined and stick to their game plan.
“We were calm in between the second and third, we were calm in here, we felt good about our game. Obviously, they’ve got the two best players in the world there so at any time they can strike, so you have to be focused for 60 minutes, but we felt good about our game for the majority of the night,” Garland said.
The Garland-Dakota Joshua-Lindholm line combined for three goals and three assists on the night.
Nikita Zadorov scored the tying goal that sent a sea of white towels twirling in the air at Rogers Arena.
“Teddy [Blueger] made a great play. There was a lot of room for me to get a shot through, likely hit the net, goalie was screened, and it went through,” Zadorov said.
“There’s a lot of belief in this group, you know we’ve done it before in Nashville. I don’t think anybody was giving up, even when we were down 4-1, we were staying positive because we like our five-on-five game. They got a couple bounces and on their side they have a lot of skill, they’re going to bury on their chances, but you have to give the credit to every guy in this room and Artūrs [Šilovs] saves at the end too. So, it was overall a great team win for sure,” Zadorov said.
Game Summary
In the first, Zach Hyman scored on the power play at 2:11 and Mattias Ekholm scored from the top of the left faceoff circle, taking a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.
Joshua scored a quick goal off a rebound to start the second and bring the Canucks within one goal.
