Canucks win series in six games, bring on the Oilers

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Pius Suter was having a frustrating night.

The Swiss forward has more than one glorious chances to score. He slammed his stick on the bench after a missed chance in the second period.

Then, with 99 seconds left in regulation, all his previous misses were forgotten.

Elias Pettersson replaced a gassed J.T. Miller on the ice for a late third period shift. He and Brock Boeser worked the boards and combined to feed an open Suter in front of the net.

This time, Suter made no mistake, burying the game-winning goal and helping the Canucks defeat the Nashville Predators 1-0.

“He just needed me to leave the ice, J.T. Miller told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy postgame. “I have one shift away from him and he scores the winning goal.”

“I love the fire. He knows he could have had 10 goals this series. He stuck with it which was awesome and its a huge goal for our team.”

Suter’s goal, officially stands as the latest series-clinching goal in Canucks history.

Arturs Silovs, the 23-year-old Latvian rookie, got his first career NHL playoff shutout in his third career playoff start.

The Canucks officially defeat the Predators in six games, clinching their first series on the road since 2011, when they defeated Nashville, also in six games, during Western Conference Semi Finals

Vancouver will move onto the second round to play the Edmonton Oilers, a team they went 4-0 against in the regular season.

Silovs makes history for Canucks

NHL playoff hockey often breed unlikely heroes.

There might not be a more unlikely hero on the entire Canucks’ roster.

With Thatcher Demko returning with two games in the regular season, Silovs likely thought he was done playing NHL games in 2023-24. However, injuries to both Demko and Casey DeSmith thrust him into the spotlight.

Not only did Silovs prove he could handle the pressure, he just outdueled one of the best goaltenders in the NHL.

The Latvian goaltender stopped all 28 Predators’ shots that came his way. He helped bewilder the Predators with seconds to go during a frantic example in front of the Canucks’ net.

With the victory, Silovs became the youngest goaltender in Canucks history to record a shutout in the playoffs. He’s actually just the second Canucks rookie to register a playoff shutout, with Demko being the only other netminder to do so.

He also became the the youngest goaltender in Canucks history to record a series clinching win.

After the game, fans were chanting his name outside Rogers Arena.

That was unbeknownst to Silovs, as the young netminder reflected on the massive win.

“It’s a great opportunity for me.” Silovs told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy. They trust me more and I want to capitalize on these chances.”

The rookie also had the wherewithal to chirp Miller for wearing his shirt in practice yesterday.

“He’s gonna wear it every single day after this game.”

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