The Vancouver Canucks got back to their winning ways Saturday night at Rogers Arena, downing the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1.

Head coach Rick Tocchet saw improvement from the team in tonight’s game and sees it as something for them to build on.

“That power play goal relaxed some of the guys. After that, I liked our game. We’ve obviously got to work on some stuff, but I thought for the most part, guys hung in there, had some possession time. I thought [Danton] Heinen had a really good, strong game for us, guys like that, with the fourth line throughout the game, gave us some juice,” Tocchet said.

Tocchet felt the fourth line (Heinen, Aatu Räty, and Nils Höglander) was a key piece in the win, putting pressure on the Blackhawks.

“Rats had a bunch of hits, I think he was 6-0 in the faceoffs early, that was big. I thought Heinen was good on the walls. Höggy had some good possession time. They all did the right thing in the sense that they were connected. And they had some really good possession time,” Tocchet said.

Elias Pettersson felt it was a good bounce-back game from Thursday night’s loss to the Islanders, and after securing the win tonight they’re looking to make it two in a row tomorrow.

He liked that the group stayed the course in the first and found their game in the middle frame.

“I think we got we got too stale and in the neutral zone we didn’t come with speed, when we got the puck deep, they were breaking it out easy, so we had some more speed through neutral zone [in the second period] and that changed a lot for us,” Pettersson said.

A ‘Let’s Go Petey’ chant broke out in the crowd after Pettersson’s tying goal and to hear that from the Canucks faithful made him smile. “Feels good,” Pettersson said.

"LET'S GO PETEY!" pic.twitter.com/vnrvTV2PJ7

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 17, 2024

J.T. Miller’s two-point night included a goal and an assist, making that his 269th assist with the Canucks’ franchise. On Thursday against the Islanders, his assist on Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s goal put him 10th all-time in assists in franchise history.

Artūrs Šilovs notched his first win of the season, stopping 28 of 29 shots he faced.

“He looked good. Especially in the third period, he looked big in the net – made a couple saves where he looked big,” Tocchet said.

Goals

Former Canucks’ forward Ilya Mikheyev got the Blackhawks on the board in the first and Chicago took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

In the second, Vancouver drew even on the power play, Pettersson’s shot from the goal line into the crease hit Connor Murphy’s skate and made its way into the back of the net.

The Canucks and Blackhawks were knotted 1-1 going into the final frame.

POWER PLAY PETTERSSON pic.twitter.com/uf3C1IU9EE

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 17, 2024

Erik Brännström fired a one-timer from the high left circle to give the Canucks the go-ahead goal, but the Canucks had another couple of goals in the tank before the game was over.

An absolute bomb by Brännström pic.twitter.com/0WIGcYOZ1q

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 17, 2024

Miller scored his sixth goal of the season on an empty-net goal and Teddy Blueger scored a subsequent empty netter to secure the win for Vancouver 4-1.

Up Next

The Canucks will be back at Rogers Arena tomorrow night for the second game of their first double-header of the season to take on the Nashville Predators at 7 p.m. PT.