Thatcher Demko stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced and Filip Chytil scored twice to help lead Vancouver to a 5-1 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames in the Canucks’ season opener on Thursday.
Kiefer Sherwood, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Brock Boeser also found the back of the net for the Canucks.
Morgan Frost scored for the Flames, who won their opener on Wednesday, 4-3 in a shootout against the Edmonton Oilers. Dustin Wolf made 21 saves while starting for the second night in a row.
Sherwood notched Vancouver’s season-opening marker with just over five minutes left in the first period.
After taking a pass from Drew O’Connor in the neutral zone, Sherwood skated his way into the zone before wiring a wrist shot past Wolf to break the deadlock.
Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson went down hard and headed straight to the locker room less than half a minute into the second period as MacKenzie Weegar was handed a two-minute minor for boarding.
Pettersson returned to action minutes later.
Blake Coleman broke loose for a short-handed breakaway on the ensuing power play, but Demko turned him aside.
Pettersson landed a big hit on Connor Zary with 15:27 left in the middle frame and was assessed a two-minute minor for boarding as well.
Zary headed to the dressing room but returned later in the period.
With 17:06 left in the contest, the Canucks doubled their lead on an odd goal. Chytil scored on his second attempt after his initial shot bounced off the helmet of Calgary’s Kevin Bahl.
Chytil struck again with 11:07 left to extend Vancouver’s advantage to 3-0.
The Czech forward sprung loose on a breakaway thanks to a breakout pass from Arshdeep Bains and made no mistake to pot his second of the period.
Lekkerimaki added an insurance goal with 8:17 left in the contest, as Evander Kane recorded his first point as a Canuck.
Frost spoiled the shutout bid with just under seven minutes remaining.
Boeser unloaded a rocket over Wolf’s shoulder with 2:54 left to break Vancouver’s franchise record with his ninth career goal in season-opening contests.
–Field Level Media
