Penticton, BC — The Vancouver Canucks closed out training camp with a two-period scrimmage in front of a solid crowd at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Lineups
The two sides divided into Team Blue and Team White, essentially by playing groups from previous days of camp. The notable lines were JT Miller and Brock Boeser with Danton Heinen on Team White, while Elias Pettersson skated with Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Jake DeBrusk on Team Blue’s top line. Jiri Patera started in goal for Team White, while Arturs Silovs suited up for Team Blue.
Period One
Ty Mueller had the best chance of the game early on when he made a quick move to the middle to create space for himself before letting go of a wrister that Arturs Silovs batted away with the blocker.
JT Miller and Brock Boeser turned in a strong shift early on, as it was all Team White in the early going. Phil Di Giuseppe nearly opened the scoring after receiving a cross-crease feed from Kiefer Sherwood, but again Silovs stood tall.
At the other end, Mark Friedman scored the game’s first goal just over five minutes into the game, bringing Jiri Patera’s save percentage down to .500 early on.
Team White continued to pour on the pressure, and Arturs Silovs continued to make some saves that were getting more and more ridiculous.
Elias Pettersson — the defenceman — got beat in a footrace for a loose puck by Danton Heinen (Blue), who took the puck away from the young defenceman and got a solid shot off on Silovs.
It was all Team White in the opening frame, but with Silovs standing so tall in goal, the score was 1-0 Team Blue with the shot chart reading 16-9 in favour of Team White.
Second Period
Ty Young led out Team Blue for the second period, while Nikita Tolopilo manned the crease for Team White for the final 20 minutes.
Team Blue pushed their lead to two when Nils Höglander capitalized on a failed clearing attempt from Jett Woo to feed Conor Garland in tight on Tolopilo. Garland showed off some nifty hands and made no mistake in sliding the puck past a sprawled Tolopilo:
Ty Young (Blue) made a nice glove save off of Kiefer Sherwood on the very next play. We caught up with Young yesterday, and you can read that story by clicking here.
Team White got on the board when Carson Soucy fired a puck through traffic that beat Young far side to make it 2-1 in favour of Team Blue:
Conor Garland’s tally would serve as the game-winning goal
Some takeaways from today’s scrimmage:
-Elias Pettersson is going to need some time in the AHL. He had a few moments that made this fairly evident today, and no, I’m not talking about the centre. Not a knock on him, he’s 20, but to those wondering if he might find himself in the same conversation as a player like Lekkerimäki to actually make the team out of camp (still a longshot), the answer would appear to be no.
-The reinforcement of Kevin Lankinen was a needed addition, no doubt, but my oh my, Arturs Silovs looks ready to start the season as the Canucks’ 1A goaltender.
-Kiefer Sherwood has some sweet hands and playmaking ability.
Thanks for tuning in for our training camp coverage all week long! It was a blast and we can’t wait to create more content for you all season long!
