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VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks and Vegas Golden Knights open their Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference semi-final tonight in Edmonton.

This is the first time the Canucks have advanced to the second round of the playoffs since 2011. They got here by defeating the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in six games. The Canucks eliminated the Blues with a 6-2 victory on Friday night. Tyler Motte scored twice while Brock Boeser, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle and Troy Stecher had the other goals. After not scoring in the team’s first eight games since the re-start, Motte has recorded back to back two-goal games. In Game 6 against the Blues, the Canucks got 4+4=8 from ‘bottom six’ forwards.

Elias Pettersson had two assists on Friday and led the Canucks in scoring against St. Louis with 3+6=9. The second-year Swede has had two-point performances in back to back games and four of the last five outings. He has the team lead – and is tied for second in the league -- in post-season scoring with 4+9=13. JT Miller (5+5) and Quinn Hughes (1+9) are tied for second on the team and are both in the Top 10 of NHL playoff scorers.

Jacob Markstrom was 4-2 against the Blues posting a 2.54 GAA and a sparkling 93% save percentage. Against the Blues, Markstrom’s even-strength save percentage was 94.2%. A young Markstrom made his NHL debut appearing in one game for Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer when the two were together with the Florida Panthers in the 2010-11 season. Markstrom played two periods in relief against New Jersey on January 23, 2011.

The Golden Knights return to action for the first time since eliminating Chicago in five games on Tuesday. Vegas advanced to the second round with a 4-3 victory. Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Alec Martinez and Alex Tuch scored the goals and Robin Lehner made 23 saves in the win. Reilly Smith led the Knights in scoring against the Blackhawks with 3+3=6 followed by Jonathan Marchessault with 0+5=5.

Smith (3+5) and Stone (4+4) share the team lead in post-season scoring followed by Shea Theodore (4+3) and Marchessault (2+5).

In six games in the Edmonton bubble, Robin Lehner is 5-1 with a 2.44 GAA and a 90.4% save percentage. The Canucks faced Lehner once this season when he was with Chicago. They beat the Blackhawks 7-5 in a wild night of hockey on January 2nd in Vancouver.

The Canucks and Knights split their regular season series when they played two games five days apart in mid-December. Vegas beat Vancouver 6-3 at T-Mobile Arena on December 15th while the Canucks posted a 5-4 overtime victory at Rogers Arena on December 19th. Chris Tanev scored the winner that night in a game that launched the Canucks on a season-high seven game win streak.

In the Golden Knights three years in the NHL, they have never lost to the Canucks in regulation time going 8-0-2. In those 10 games, they have outscored the Canucks 45-26.

Canucks forward Jay Beagle beat Vegas to win the Stanley Cup when he was a member of the Washington Capitals in 2018. Beagle’s goal on Friday night was his first since February 19th.

In the post-season, the Canucks are 11 for 42 (26.2%) on the power play and have had twice as many opportunities as the Golden Knights who are 4 for 21 (19.1%). Meanwhile, on the penalty kill the Knights are 19 for 22 (86.4%) while the Canucks are 34 for 42 (81.0%). The Canucks have had the most power play chances in the playoffs and only Montreal has been short-handed more often. The Canucks led the NHL playoffs with 52 minor penalties taken so far – seven more than the Habs.

 

POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP

Miller-Pettersson-Boeser

Pearson-Horvat-Eriksson

Roussel-Sutter-Virtanen

Motte-Beagle-Gaudette

 

Hughes-Tanev

Edler-Stecher

Fantenberg-Benn

 

Markstrom

 

POSSIBLE GOLDEN KNIGHTS LINE-UP

Pacioretty-Karlsson-Stone

Marchessault-Stastny-Smith

Cousins-Roy-Tuch

Carrier-Stephenson-Reaves

 

McNabb-Schmidt

Martinez-Theodore

Holden-Whitecloud

 

Lehner