Canucks 6, Sabres 3: Like a Lake Erie breeze - The Province

The Canucks picked up a nice win against the Sabres on Saturday afternoon.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Canucks have played plenty of warm-weather hockey this week with bad results. It turned out that what they really needed was for the hockey to be played in the afternoon and in Buffalo.

The temperature on the shores of Lake Erie hit 17 C, not far off the fine weather seen during the week in Florida.

Whatever the weather, the Canucks put together a much improved performance against the Sabres, winning 6-3 at the KeyBank Center.

The Sabres did score early but the Canucks, as they did in both Florida and Tampa, played a strong first period and tied the game up later in the period.

But unlike in their previous two games, they kept things rolling in the second and into the third, outscoring their hosts 4-2 in the process.

Captain Bo Horvat was delighted with his team’s performance.

“We wanted to come out hard and I thought we did that tonight and I think we played a full 60 minutes, we haven’t done that in a little bit and we stepped it up even harder in the third,” he said.

The Canucks got two goals from Brock Boeser, plus singles by Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller and Jake Virtanen, plus an empty-netter by Loui Eriksson. The Sabres got goals from Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart and Zemgus Girgensons.

Here’s what we learned …

Slick mitts

Boeser has scored two goals in two straight games now on deft tips in front.

His first-period tally saw him deflect a Troy Stecher shot off the side boards essentially behind his back.

“I think the went off the D’s skate after, so you know sometimes you get lucky,” he said. “The main thing is getting good position on their defence because if they box you out, you’re not going to be able to get that tip so you know it’s something I’ve been working on.”

His second goal of the game was a patented wrist shot, fired after an unconventional give-and-go with Chris Tanev.

He’s up to 16 goals on the season and has recorded points in six-straight road games: he has four goals and four assists in that span.

“He’s not looking to shoot often, so you have to expect to get the puck back,” Boeser said, with a grin, of the sequence with Tanev.

Tanev admitted he initially thought about a shot on the play.

“I was. I sort of had to reach for it a bit so I mean I didn’t think I could get much on it and (Boeser) sort of slid into that open area and I think both their guys thought I was going to shoot it,” the veteran defenceman said.

What a high note for the winger to be riding in on to his home state on Sunday.

Tyler Motte also showed some crafty work with the puck when he set up Virtanen for the game’s fifth goal, a cross-crease backhanded pass right on the tape for Virtanen, who made no mistake with the finish.

Vancouver Canucks right wing Brock Boeser (6) makes a pass during the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.

Timothy T. Ludwig /

USA TODAY Sports

Captain’s call

Bo Horvat is playing some of the best hockey of the season.

Since Christmas he has three goals and six assists, while playing tough minutes.

The third goal was the go-ahead marker early in the second period, as he took a rebound off his initial pass attempt to Quinn Hughes off the wing and willed it home past Carter Hutton.

“It’s nice to finally get the bounces coming our way,” he said of the goal. “I was talking before the game would be nice to shoot a puck in the net for once. And thankfully we got a couple here tonight.”

Buffalo Sabres left wing Conor Sheary (43) watches as Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom (25) dives to make a save during the second period at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Timothy T. Ludwig /

USA TODAY Sports

Stout defence

After four straight games giving up more than 30 shots — and five out of six games since Christmas — the Canucks limited the Sabres to a tidy 28 shots against.

“That was our best game since that win in Calgary, I think,” coach Travis Green said.

Keep away

In a shift reminiscent of one midway through Tuesday’s game in Tampa where the Canucks never found a way to take possession of the puck, which would let them get off the ice. In Tampa it meant a quintet of Canucks were on the ice for two-minute-long shift before taking a penalty.

On Saturday, a pair of Canucks had a shift half again as long, with a worse ending.

Alex Edler and Tim Schaller ended up on the ice for more than three minutes because they were stuck on the ice killing a penalty. There was only one whistle. early in the penalty-killing scenario.

The Sabres never relinquished the puck even after the power play expired; it wasn’t until Brandon Montour scored at 8:44 that play came to an end.

Holy post

Was there a hole in the post to the right of Sabres goalie Hutton? The officials took a long time to review a goal that turned out not to be.

All that was shown in the building was an overhead view that made it seem as if a Boeser wrist shot had picked the corner of the net.

It wasn’t until the Sabres broadcast showed a side view that it was clear that the shot had gone well over the net.

It was all a bit baffling as to why the review lasted so long.

“They showed us the overhead view and, you know, it kind of looks like it went in there but then there’s that one view where you could see I missed by a couple feet,” Boeser said about it, again with a grin.