On Monday night, the injury-riddled Vancouver Canucks faced off against a struggling New Jersey Devils squad. Both teams were coming off demoralizing defeats and were in desperate need of a victory. Thankfully for the Canucks, they came out victorious with a gutsy 4-3 shootout win. But the Devils still grabbed a crucial point in the race. Thatcher Demko made 22 saves in his return from injury – his seventh win of the season. They improve to 33-26-12; the Devils fall to 37-28-7.
The two teams played a pretty even first half of the opening frame, but the Canucks struck first: Pius Suter opened the scoring with a one-timer. The score remained 1-0 until about halfway into the second, when Timo Meier tied it on the power play.
They entered the third still knotted at one, until Meier scored again to stay red hot. But just 38 seconds later, Jonathan Lekkerimaki tied it up at two. Then just a minute and a half after that, Erik Haula banged home a rebound to restore the Devils’ lead. It looked like the Devils were going to escape but Suter tied it with the extra attacker out.
The overtime session was back and forth but the game ultimately needed a shootout. That was back and forth as well, until Lekkerimaki scored in the fourth round to win it.
Lekkerimaki scores#NJDevils fall 4-3, get a point
Markstrom breaks his stick and tosses it pic.twitter.com/4FhBfihfTh
— Daniel Amoia (@daniel_amoia) March 25, 2025
The Canucks will return to action on Wednesday against the New York Islanders (7:30 PM ET); the Devils will also play at the same time, as they travel to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks.
