VANCOUVER, British Columbia — — Rasmus Darling scored in five straight games to extend his defensive record in the NHL to start the season as the Buffalo Sabers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Saturday night. Sometimes added an assist.
Victor Olofsson added two goals and one assist, Alex Tuf and Zemgas Gilgensons also scored, and Casey Mitlstadt added two assists to complete a third consecutive win. Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots.
“I think it starts with hard work and you deserve this confidence now,” said Darling. “We’re playing away but we’re playing really well and starting to find our game.”
Conor Garland scored for the Canucks, who remained the only winless team in the league (0-4-2). Thatcher Demko made 22 saves.
Tied 3–1, Vancouver pulled Demko in favor of an extra attacker with less than four minutes remaining, and Gilgensons put an easy shot into the yawning net with three and a half minutes remaining. Just 50 seconds after him, Olofsson had his second shot past the Canucks goalkeeper.
Three Vancouver jerseys hit the ice near the end of the game, causing boos as players left the ice.
Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said, “It was the first time I was involved in this. “Of course, I hope the players feel the same way I feel. It’s totally embarrassing. It’s something you never want to see.”
According to Garland, the fan reaction was fair.
“We haven’t won a hockey game yet. But we’re working on it,” he said. “We need to get better, we have to put together a full game. … We have confidence in this group. It was just hard.”
Tied 2–0, Vancouver scored midway through the second period by scoring a power play goal after Darling was called for tripping. Positioned in front of the Sabers’ net, Tanner his Pearson sent the blind’s spinning backhand his pass to Garland, and the forward shot it past Anderson from a low hash his mark.
The Sabers regained the two-goal advantage at 1:54 in the third from 2–1 as Mittelstadt sliced a pass across the slot and Olofsson shot past Demko.
“We had a pretty good barrage in the second set, and I thought (Anderson) and our defense played really well,” Sabers manager Don Granat said. “And he needed to come back into the game a little bit more for the third. It was a really big moment for us to be able to do that early on and have (Mittelstadt) and (Olofsson) team up. .”
The Sabers lost after defenseman Matthias Samuelsson hit Curtis Lazar along the endboard about three minutes into midfield. Samuelson fell awkwardly after contact, laying on the ice writhing and grabbing his right knee before trainers carried him to the bench. He went straight to the Buffalo locker room and never returned.
Buffalo opened the scoring with an early power play goal after Tyler Myers was called up for tripping Tage Thompson. Darling shot Blue from inside his line and the puck hit Vancouver’s Elias in his Petterson high his slot before moving past Demko into the game at 5:35.
After Vancouver’s Oliver Ekman-Larson dealt the puck into the slot, Touch picked it up and hit a shot under Demko’s arm to give the Sabers a 2-0 lead with 4:42 left in the first .
damaged blue line
Vancouver was without three defense attorneys for various illnesses, including star Quinn Hughes (undisclosed). The team called up Noah Julesen from the AHL’s Abbotsford early Saturday, and defenseman Jack Rathbone made his season debut.
next
Buffalo: Last of four games in Seattle on Tuesday.
Vancouver: Carolina on Monday.
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