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I Watched This Game: Canucks end epic losing streak with miracle comeback in Anaheim

Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
|
Oct 28 2026, 9:46 am
I Watched This Game: Canucks end epic losing streak with miracle comeback in Anaheim
Gary A. Vasquez/Imagn Images

Tuesday night’s game between the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks is why you should never leave a hockey game early.

Sure, 999 times out of 1000 it’s safe to head to the parking lot when it’s 5-2 with about seven minutes remaining in the third period. You’ll beat traffic and feel like you made the smart, logical choice.

Let’s be honest: being a sports fan is not about being smart or logical. The smart, logical thing to do is to never let yourself get invested in a sports team at all. But that’s not why anyone loves sports.

Because a fraction of a percent of the time, something crazy and unpredictable happens that lets you know the universe can still surprise you, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Sometimes, the Canucks snap a ten-game losing streak by coming back from a three-goal deficit in the final seven minutes of the third period, then score the game-winning goal on a power play with ten seconds left in overtime after going 0-for-6 on the power play up until that point.

It’s ludicrous. It’s absurd. It’s sports.

This is why we watch the games; this is why I watched this game.

offside i watched this game

“It bleeds into the room and the morale takes a hit”

  • The Canucks needed this win like Jennifer Coolidge needs a hot dog: real bad. They didn’t need it in the standings, where tanking and finishing last is still the overall organizational goal, but they needed it to avoid smashing the collective psyche of the players into a billion pieces like a glass door at a Texas salon.
  • “So much,” said Brock Boeser when asked how much the win mattered. “When you lose ten in a row, it’s tough mentally, physically, and emotionally coming to the rink every day. You’re just trying to find ways to get out, you’re searching for answers.”

  • Anyone who has been in a similar situation knows what it feels like when that weight lifts off your shoulders. I was on a soccer team that lost all but one game one season. When we pulled out a tie with a last-minute goal — not even a win, a tie — we celebrated like we had just won the championship.
  • “Massive,” said Manny Malhotra. “Obviously, when you string together as many losses as we have, it bleeds into the room and the morale takes a hit. Not just getting a win, but a big come-from-behind win in the third is something we can build off of.”
  • On the other side of the ice, losing to the last-place team in that fashion is devastating. The Ducks, fresh off snapping a five-game losing streak of their own, still only have one win on home ice this season.
  • “That was a terrible loss,” said Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville. “It’s unacceptable,” said Jackson LaCombe. “It’s really frustrating to lose this way,” said Mikael Granlund.
  • This kind of comeback is also devastating to the real victims: the hockey writers who have to scrap large portions of their post-game articles and rewrite from scratch. Spare a thought for the hockey writers, and also a click: just one click per day (from several thousand people) will feed a hockey writer and his family for that day.

Own goal helps Ducks build a lead

  • Filip Hronek opened the scoring late in the first period. Unfortunately, he scored into his own net. His defence partner, Elias Pettersson, did a great job cutting off an A.J. Greer drive up the right side, but the Ducks winger spun and threw a puck in front that Hronek neatly tipped off the post and in.

  • The Canucks got an own goal of their own after Liam Öhgren’s pass over to Zeev Buium only made it as far as Tristan Luneau, who deflected it through Lukas Dostal’s five-hole. The bounce was lucky; the precision cross-ice pass from Linus Karlsson to create the 2-on-1 opportunity was skill (mixed with some questionable Ducks defending).

  • 30 seconds later, the tie was erased like it had been drawn by an indecisive portraitist. Hronek and forward Elias Pettersson both got tangled up with Granlund in front of the net, and Pettersson couldn’t get across to his check, Jeff Malott, who was wide-open to tap in a pass from LaCombe.
  • Pettersson the defenceman had the biggest hit of the game when he sent Sam Colangelo flying as they chased a puck down in the Canuck’s zone. It was a just a clean, hard hit, which of course meant that one of the Ducks got in Pettersson’s face and started a veritable brouhaha.

  • Despite Hinds starting the trouble, the Canucks somehow ended up with an extra penalty and, because the Canucks’ penalty kill is all kinds of terrible, the Ducks scored on the power play. Jamie Oleksiak couldn’t tie up Beckett Sennecke’s stick in front and he tipped in a Cutter Gauthier point shot to give the Ducks a 3-1 lead.
  • Sometimes, the hardest thing to do in hockey is to not play the puck. It’s counterintuitive: the puck is there, the whole point of the game is the puck, why not try to hit the puck with your stick? But when it’s a bouncing puck on a rebound and you’re a defenceman, your responsibility is to box out your man and tie up their stick, not to play the puck.
  • Zeev Buium still needs to learn that particular lesson. Leevi Meriläinen kicked out a rebound on a Ducks rush and Buium watched the puck the whole way instead of his man, Leo Carlsson. The puck hit Buium and fell in the crease for an easy tap-in goal for the unimpeded Duck.

“That’s the type of effort that we’ve been looking for”

  • “It’s always a sh*t feeling when you have to chase from behind,” said Hronek to Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy after the game. “At least we have something to lean back on and bring it back next game.”
  • It seemed like time was running out to get a comeback going midway through the third period, but then the Canucks got a power play. 15 seconds later, that power play ended with a Pettersson high-sticking penalty that had Pettersson staring at his hands in despair like Rockbiter.

  • Perhaps that despair provided motivation for Pettersson, as he was fantastic for the rest of the game. He was credited with two assists; he arguably should have had four.
  • Brock Boeser had a game-high six shots on goal, so it’s somewhat ironic that his only goal came on a shot that wasn’t a shot at all. Pettersson sent Drew Helleson into the shadow realm with a gorgeous toe-drag move, then tried to set up Boeser in front. His pass was chopped away by Killorn only to deflect into the net off the logo on Boeser’s jersey.

  • Since Killorn played the puck, that was deemed a change in possession, taking away Pettersson’s assist. And yet, two Ducks got assists on Hronek’s own goal in the first period. Make that make sense.
  • Once again, the shift after a goal was a problem for the Canucks. 43 seconds after Boeser’s goal, the Canucks got their coverage scrambled off a defensive zone faceoff, and Greer tipped in a point shot from Colangelo to make it 5-2.
  • The Canucks bent, but didn’t break, and kicked off the comeback 31 seconds later. Jake DeBrusk pulled up on a zone entry and got the puck to Pettersson, who relayed it to Boeser. While Boeser couldn’t shoot with the pass too far in front of him, he hit the trailer, Jamie Oleksiak, who was more wide open than The Chicks’ spaces. He hammered a one-timer through Dostal to make it 5-3.

  • The key to the goal was a truly godawful line change by the Ducks. The Ducks only had four skaters on the ice for a solid four seconds before Oleksiak scored, and they didn’t even seem to notice.
  • “Really pleased with the response from guys. That’s the type of effort that we’ve been looking for for a while now, just in terms of the response. There were a lot of instances where we could have gone away on the night, but we stuck with it, applied a good amount of pressure, and then guys came up with some timely goals for us.”

Malhotra on Lekkerimäki: “He’s elite”

  • With 4:20 remaining in the game, the Canucks intriguingly went with four forwards and just one defenceman on the ice for a neutral zone faceoff. Hronek was the lone defenceman with Filip Chytil lined up alongside him, backing up DeBrusk, Pettersson, and Lekkerimäki.
  • It was an interesting setup for pulling the goaltender for extra attacker a minute later when they finally got set up in the offensive zone with possession, whereupon Malhotra put five forwards and one defenceman on the ice. The end result? Two goals in under a minute to tie the game.
  • Of course, the real key to the two goals is that Jonathan Lekkerimäki has an absolutely ridiculous release on his shot.
  • The Canucks’ fourth goal started with a Pettersson turnover on the boards, as he fanned on a pass to the point. He immediately revved up the motor to get on the right side of Greer to win the puck back, forcing an utterly terrible pass by Greer right onto the tape of Lekkerimäki. He could have shot immediately; instead he patiently waited for DeBrusk to set a screen before ripping the puck over Dostal’s glove.

  • “He’s elite in terms of his ability to get [his shot] off and pick corners,” said Malhotra, who couldn’t help but praise Lekkerimäki for something other than his shot. “But moreso, I just think his poise that he had recovering a couple of pucks, just settling it down for us, put us in a good spot.”
  • Less than a minute later, still at 6-on-5 with the extra attacker, Lekkerimäki struck again. First, he set up DeBrusk for a point-blank chance at the top of the crease that Dostal somehow kept out. The puck popped free to Hronek, who moved it to Pettersson, who knew just what to do: pass it to Lekkerimäki. It was the right move, as he snapped a sneaky shot from distance that beat Dostal past another DeBrusk screen.

  • “I have to thank JD,” said Lekkerimäki. “He had a good screen on both goals.”
  • DeBrusk ended the game with zero points, but he was instrumental to the comeback and had a nice shiny plus-3 rating to his credit.

The power play finally comes through in overtime

  • Paul Cotter was given a ten-minute misconduct for an altercation with Malott with less than ten minutes remaining in regulation. Since it came prior to any of the Canucks’ goals, it seemed like his night was done. When overtime began, however, there was Cotter, fully geared up and heading to the penalty box, just in case he was needed after his misconduct ended.

  • “He was a welcome addition, absolutely, in overtime,” said Malhotra with a laugh. “We’d kind of forgotten about him.”
  • Cotter did not have any ice time in overtime, which feels like an addendum akin to “Poochie died on the way back to his home planet.”
  • As if Lekkerimäki hadn’t already done enough, he drew a penalty in overtime to put the Canucks back on the power play. Just give him the Pavel Bure Most Exciting Player Award already.
  • It was the Ducks, however, who got a shorthanded chance, as Killorn burst up the left wing and drove to the net. The chance was erased by a Pettersson pokecheck, which should temporarily quiet the voices of the demons inside that had him staring at his hands earlier. To top it off, Killorn ran right into Meriläinen and got a goaltender interference penalty to give the Canucks a 5-on-3.
  • A 5-on-3 isn’t a guaranteed goal — the Canucks only had one 5-on-3 goal all of last season — but the Canucks made it look like one. Once again, Pettersson made the best possible play by passing it to Lekkerimäki. Instead of shooting, Lekkerimäki fed the point and Hronek and Boeser played a quick game of pass to set up a one-timer bomb from Hronek to win the game.

  • “This guy grinds for us every night, plays a lot of minutes on the backend and he just works his tail off,” said Boeser of Hronek. “Really happy for him.”
  • What a phenomenal, unexpected way for the Canucks to snap one of the longest losing streaks in franchise history. The Canucks could immediately go on another long losing streak, but this kind of comeback is important: it lets the players know that this is possible. When a coaching staff is trying to instill a culture of never giving up and always working hard no matter the score, this is the type of result they need to reinforce that message.
  • I’ll be honest: this I Watched This Game got out of control. This is too many words. But what else can I do with a ridiculous comeback win that snaps a ten-game losing streak? This game deserved too many words.
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