VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — J.T. Miller had a career-high five assists and the Vancouver Canucks extended their winning streak to five games with a 7-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.
With the win, the Canucks kept alive their faint playoff hopes. Vancouver is five points behind the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars, who hold the two Western Conference wild-card spots.
Rookie Vasily Podkolzin had two goals and an assist, Alex Chiasson scored twice, and Sheldon Dries, Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland added goals for the Canucks (37-28-10). Quinn Hughes had three assists. Thatcher Demko made 21 saves.
“I’m disappointed about the number of penalties we had and the way we took our penalties,” Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny told reporters postgame. “We fed their power play a lot, we gave them the opportunity and they did what they had to do on their power play. That’s disappointing.”
Andrew Ladd scored for the Coyotes (22-47-5), who lost their fifth straight.
“The NHL to me is full of slumps,” Tourigny said. “You need to be able to react to slumps. If you cannot get out of slumps in the NHL, you’re in trouble. You will be a streaky player.
“The NHL is not about that, it’s about being good every day. It’s about consistency. You cannot have an eight-out-of-10 day. The guy on the other side is too good. You need to make sure you’re on top of your game every night.”
Karel Vejmelka stopped 16 of 22 shots before being replaced by Harri Sateri at the start of the third period. Sateri made four saves in relief.
“I liked the way we played in the third period,” Tourigny said. “We showed more pride in the third period, and to me that’s our team. That’s the way we have to fight. We talked about it before the game, and we got better on that.”
UP NEXT
The Coyotes complete the Canadian road trip in Calgary against the Flames on Saturday night at 7 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.
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