Canucks drop low-event game vs. Kings despite strong Lankinen return

LOS ANGELES — The challenge for Kevin Lankinen to jump back into a National Hockey League goal crease and start after four days without practising or playing was surely less than whatever the Vancouver Canuck has been dealing with at home this week.

With his desperate team facing the second half of back-to-back road games Saturday night against the Los Angeles Kings, Lankinen flew back from a personal leave for family reasons and stopped 21 of the first 22 shots he faced before a broken play in overtime gave him no chance against Adrian Kempe in the Canucks’ 2-1 loss.

After only a morning skate with a few teammates, Lankinen played after four days off — and after minor-league callup Nikita Tolopilo was in goal for the first two games of a road trip in which the Canucks are 1-1-1 heading to Tuesday’s finale against the dominant Colorado Avalanche.

Coach Adam Foote announced Lankinen’s return earlier Saturday, and general manager Patrik Allvin said he believes the goalie will finish the trip with his teammates.

“All I want to say is I’m just really thankful to Adam and Patrik for offering me some time to stay with my family when they need me the most,” Lankinen said. “So I’m really thankful for that.

“I felt good out there. And that’s what hockey is about — you’ve got to be able to perform. And I was happy to help the team. It’s too bad we couldn’t get the win.”

After playing a low-event road game and allowing the Kings single-digit high-danger scoring chances, the Canucks surrendered a couple of two-on-ones in overtime. In the aftermath of the second rush, Quinton Byfield heeled his shot from the slot, but the puck went straight to Kempe, who was able to settle it and fire it into a semi-open net as Lankinen and teammates Elias Pettersson and Kiefer Sherwood tried frantically to get in front of the shot.

A game that began with three official reviews in the first five minutes also ended with one, as the NHL Situation Room in Toronto took a look at the winning goal before ruling that Byfield, who went to the edge of the crease after his miss, did not unfairly impede Lankinen.

“I tried to do my best there,” the goalie said. “I don’t really know. . . I’m not sure what happened there. I was just trying to throw something at (the shot). But I’m sure the league did their homework (on the review) and I trust their judgment.”

Asked if it was difficult to focus on hockey after his personal leave, Lankinen said: “I trust my preparation. I trust the work that I’ve put in. I feel like I can perform, so I was just happy to help the team. Just too bad we couldn’t get the win.”

“Kevin was great,” Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers said. “It was good to get him some extra time at home and, you know, for him to fly in and step in like he did tonight. . . he’s been doing it for us since he came to Vancouver. We always have a tonne of confidence in him.

“For sure, you want to play hard for him, anytime someone’s going through something. And you know, he was great tonight. I thought the guys battled really hard. We came up short on the second point, but a lot to look at in terms of what we want to bring into the next games.”

Shots in regulation were just 22-19 for the Kings, and Natural Stat Trick’s website had high-danger scoring chances at just 8-6 for Los Angeles in all situations.

“I thought we did a lot of good tonight, especially the second and third periods,” Myers said. “It felt like one of our better neutral-zone games of the year, which I thought allowed us to not spend as much time in our own end. That’s how we have to play. It’s going to give us a better chance to win every night. 

“You know, when we look to cheat or float and hope offence comes to us, that’s usually when we get in trouble defensively. So I thought our second and third was really good tonight. A lot to build off.”

Starting 27 hours after losing 3-2 to the San Jose Sharks in one of the worst-officiated games of the season, the last thing the Canucks needed — or at least their fan base needed — was more controversy.

Naturally, there were three reviews in the first five minutes, which took a goal for each team off the board on successful coaches’ challenges for offside. A league-initiated review also confirmed that Pettersson’s bold dash to the front of the Kings net did not end in a goal at 36 seconds, as fuzzy video from the overhead camera showed that a sliver of the puck was still overlapping the back edge of the goal line as Kings goalie Anton Forsberg kept his pad behind it.

At 17:19 of the first period, Los Angeles scored the first goal that counted when all five Canuck skaters surrounded Anze Kopitar on a rush but still allowed the retiring star to flick a quick shot from the middle of the ice that beat Lankinen on the glove side.

Evander Kane took a “good” penalty 43 seconds into the middle period, not because his hook broke up a scoring chance or set a physical tone, but because it allowed the most-penalized Canuck to pop out of the box behind the Kings and skate on to Drew O’Connor’s breakaway pass.

Kane closed on Forsberg at high speed and snapped a forehand past the retreating goalie to tie it 1-1 at 2:52.

After scoring just three goals in his first 23 games as a Canuck, Kane has two goals and an assist in his last three contests.

Lankinen later stopped a partial breakaway by Trevor Moore, and Canuck Brock Boeser saved a goal on a third-period penalty kill when he lifted Kevin Fiala’s stick as a rebound off the post angled directly to the King.

Vancouver killed off all four Los Angeles power plays, but the Canuck power play followed its 0-for-8 performance in San Jose by going 0-for-3 against the Kings. Pettersson, who physically battled the Kings all game, missed the net on a couple of excellent chances.

ICE CHIPS — For the third time this season, first-line winger Conor Garland came out of the Canucks lineup due to injury. The play-driving dynamo missed three games at the start of November after head contact on a heavy hit, then sat out a game in Florida on Nov. 17 that coach Adam Foote said was not concussion-related. Garland is remaining on the trip but it’s questionable whether he’ll play Tuesday in Denver. . . Aatu Raty returned to the Vancouver lineup after a one-game reset and centred the third line between minor-league callup Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Drew O’Connor. Max Sasson dropped down to the fourth line, reuniting with Linus Karlsson and Arshdeep Bains, while Lukas Reichel went back to the press box after a one-game reprieve. Defenceman Elias Pettersson (Junior) was scratched for the second time this season to allow Pierre-Olivier Joseph to make his first appearance since Nov. 14. . . With Garland unavailable, Jake DeBrusk started the game on the first line. Sherwood took Garland’s spot on the top power play. . . The Canucks have Sunday off in Los Angeles before practising here Monday and then flying to Colorado.

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