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Canucks win again, match franchise's best-ever 11-game start

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Nov 5 2023, 4:35 am
Canucks win again, match franchise's best-ever 11-game start
Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports

Can you believe it? This Vancouver Canucks team has rare company in franchise history, tying the best start to a season after 11 games.

The Canucks are 8-2-1, something they’ve done only twice before — in 2005-06 and 1991-92. They currently have the third-best points percentage (.773) in the National Hockey League.

One year ago, they were 3-6-2.

The Canucks didn’t score 10 goals like they did on Thursday, but this game was even more impressive. That’s because their opponent, the Dallas Stars, were 7-1-1 heading into tonight.

Pius Suter and Elias Pettersson got the goals for Vancouver, as they beat the Stars 2-0 Saturday night at Rogers Arena.

After going without a point in his first nine games with the Canucks, Suter now has goals in two straight games. He pounced on a loose puck, after Dakota Joshua’s pass bounced off a stick.

Suter’s line, with Joshua and Conor Garland, had their best game of the season.

Pettersson’s goal came as a result of a gorgeous pass from defenceman Filip Hronek. In just 11 games, Pettersson already has 20 points.

Hronek has 11 points in 11 games — all assists.

Both goals came in the second period, when Vancouver outshot Dallas 14-5. The Stars held a 9-6 edge in shots in the third period, but it was a relatively uneventful final 20 minutes, which is a testament to how the Canucks played.

Thatcher Demko picked up the shutout, stopping 27 shots, including one of the best he’s ever made in his career.

“Oh man, that was crazy,” J.T. Miller said of the save post-game. “I thought it was in the net. That was an all-world save and he seems to do it all the time.”

Also making the highlight reel was Canucks defenceman Ian Cole, who laid down a thundering hit on Matt Duchene late in the second period. Cole fought Mason Marchment immediately afterwards.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it at first, I was just coming to lean down, to try to shrink the offensive zone,” Cole said of the hit. “The puck squirted right to [Duchene,] he just didn’t see me. Originally I was just going to play the puck, and I was like ‘Uh, alright, the body’s here too, I guess I’ll just take it.'”

When was Cole’s last fight?

“Oh, man, last year against Milan Lucic,” Cole said, surprising the reporters on hand. “I know, I don’t know what I’m doing out here,” the 34-year-old joked.

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