VANCOUVER — Filip Gustavsson stopped 35 shots for his first NHL shutout and Connor Dewar broke the Vancouver Canucks' back with a short-handed goal as the Minnesota Wild used a 3-0 victory to end a two-game losing skid.
“It’s a relief,” said Gustavsson, who was playing in his 37th career game after being traded to the Wild in July from the Ottawa Senators. “It was really nice.
“It’s been close. You set a few small goals along the way. I wanted to win in the NHL and now we’ve got a shutout. Now we’re going to look at the next step.”
After a sluggish first period, the Canucks looked like they were climbing back into the game in the second.
Down 1-0, and heavily outshooting the Wild, the Canucks were awarded their third consecutive power-play opportunity.
Vancouver’s J.T. Miller sent a blind cross-ice pass in the Wild's zone that Dewar intercepted. He skated the length of the ice and blew a shot over Canucks goaltender Spencer Martin’s blocker for his fourth goal of the year.
It was Dewar’s third short-handed goal of the season, leaving him tied for the league lead with Reilly Smith of the Vegas Golden Knights.
“I don’t know how many short-handed breakaways he’s got, but obviously he’s doing the right things in the penalty kill,” said Wild coach Dean Evason. “He’s got good wheels to continue getting breakaways in those areas.”
Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau called the goal “sort of a back-breaker.”
“You could see the wind really go out of the sails of a lot of players,” he said.
A frustrated Miller took the blame.
“It was a mistake,” said Miller, who is third on the Canucks with 26 points and 11 goals. “They scored on it. It was obviously not good.
“I’d like to score and get momentum for the team. I’ve got to be better for the team and lead by example.”
Matt Boldy, on a first-period power play, and Sam Steel, on a pretty backhand in the third, also scored for the Wild (14-11-2), who were playing their third game in four nights. Mats Zuccarello had two assists.
Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov saw his franchise-record 14-game point streak end.
Many of the shots Gustavsson faced were from long-range. He made a nice stop on a Bo Horvat deflection on a second-period power play then got a right pad on an Ilya Mikheyev shot on the doorstep with 8:15 left in the third period.
“They had a few chances in the first period and they just didn’t shoot,” said Gustavsson. “We just stood tall on those penalty kills and then we scored one on the PK.
“So, 2-0 in the third, it felt pretty comfortable that we were in control of the game.”
Boldy said it was an important win for the Wild, who started the road trip with a win in Dallas, but then lost 5-2 to Edmonton on Friday and 5-3 to Calgary on Wednesday.
“It’s huge,” he said. “That win was big for us momentum-wise and kind of getting our heads back in the right space.”
Martin stopped 30 shots for the Canucks (12-13-3), who saw their three-game win streak end. It was the first time this year Vancouver was shutout.
The Canucks were badly outplayed in the first period and were outshot 14-4.
Boldy opened the scoring at 16:43, just eight seconds after Vancouver’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson was sent off for hooking. Zuccarello fired a shot from the point that Martin stopped, but Boldy put in the rebound for his 10th of the year.
NOTES: Horvat played in his 600th NHL game. … Martin made his fourth straight start since Thatcher Demko suffered a lower-body injury Dec. 1. …. The Canucks outshot the Wild 10-0 in the first seven minutes of the second period. … Miller has one goal in his last 11 games but has collected nine assists over that span. … The Canucks had won their previous three games in overtime. Elias Pettersson scored the winner in the last two against Montreal and San Jose. … Foligno played in his 700th NHL game. … Centre Samuel Walker, who played his first NHL game, is the first Wild to wear No. 74. … Minnesota played its fourth of 12 sets of back-to-back games.
UP NEXT
The Canucks play in Calgary on Wednesday then return to Rogers Arena for three games at home beginning Saturday against Winnipeg.
The Wild return home for a homestand with games against Edmonton on Monday, Detroit Wednesday, Chicago on Friday then Ottawa Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2022.
Jim Morris, The Canadian Press
