It should not have been possible for the Vancouver Canucks to win this game.
The Dallas Stars took a 3-0 lead into the third period and seemed firmly in control of the game. The Canucks, who would be officially eliminated from the playoffs with a regulation loss, poured everything they had into the final frame, clawing two goals back to make it 3-2, but it wasn’t enough.
The Stars scored a goal against the flow of play to make it 4-2, then added an empty-net goal to seal the game away with just 2:21 remaining in regulation. You had to give the Canucks credit for that final effort in the third period. There was no shame in how they performed. But that was it. Game over. Season over. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Because of course the Canucks couldn’t come back. No team had ever come back from a three-goal deficit that late in the third period.
The record for the latest three-goal comeback was three minutes and 22 seconds (3:22), set by the 2013-14 Montreal Canadiens on March 15, 2014 against the Ottawa Senators. And the 2013-14 Canadiens were a 100-point team that went on to win two playoff rounds compared to the 88-point Senators, who missed the playoffs entirely. The reverse couldn’t possibly happen.
Right?
With a minute left in the third period, Aatu Räty scored a surely meaningless goal — at least, meaningless for the result of the game, but a nice consolation prize for a young forward trying to make his mark and prove he belongs in the NHL. That’s five goals in eight games since he was called up in late March, which is a nice feather in his cap, if nothing else.
The Canucks didn’t even bother to celebrate the goal. They just skated back to the bench, understanding the impossibility of actually coming back to force overtime.
Then, Pius Suter scored with 30 seconds left to make it 5-4. This time, the Canucks cautiously celebrated the goal. Suter gave a subtle fist pump, and his teammates dapped him up, but no one was smiling. They couldn’t risk a smile. Not yet.
Then the impossible actually happened. With seven seconds left, Suter scored again, tying the game 5-5. With three goals in the final minute of the third period, the Canucks forced overtime and kept their season (mathematically) alive for a little bit longer.
Even when he tied the game, Suter seemed unsure if he should celebrate the goal. He paused on one knee after his shot, staring at the net, as if he didn’t trust that the puck had actually gone in. He got up and tentatively pumped his fist but looked at the scoreboard, needing to make sure the final horn hadn’t sounded, that there was still time left on the clock.
As his teammates swarmed him, Suter finally allowed himself to smile, eyes wide in disbelief. It had actually happened. It was real.
Kiefer Sherwood scored the game-winning goal in overtime to cement the comeback’s reality. It’s officially the latest comeback from a three-goal deficit in NHL history.
The odds against the Canucks making that comeback are astronomical. We’re talking about a team that had a two-month stretch this season where they scored more than three goals just once in 25 games. The idea that this Canucks team would score three goals in a minute is preposterous. Crab Rangoon, things of that nature.
But they did it.
The odds against the Canucks making the playoffs this year are similarly astronomical. The Canucks’ path to the playoffs relies on two equally improbable things occurring: either the Minnesota Wild or the St. Louis Blues falling apart and failing to win any of their remaining games and the Canucks to win all four of their remaining games (or lose one in overtime with the Wild losing all of their games in regulation).
It’s such a ludicrous proposition that it’s barely worth considering the possibility of it actually happening. But it was equally ludicrous to imagine the Canucks scoring three goals in the final minute to come back from a 5-2 deficit to the supposed Stanley Cup contending Dallas Stars. And that happened. It beggars belief, but it happened.
Obviously, the Canucks aren’t going to make the playoffs. Right? The Wild and Blues could both win on Wednesday and officially eliminate the Canucks without even giving them a chance to play another game.
But for one night, the Canucks kept the dream alive in the most absurd and unlikely fashion. That absurdity is what sports is all about: that opportunity to see something seemingly impossible become possible right before your eyes.
These eyes have seen a lot of games, but they’re never gonna see another one like when I watched this game.
- The Canucks got off to a strong start in this game but their momentum came to an abrupt halt when Kiefer Sherwood got called for slashing. It was softer than a Letterkenny birthday party. I’d show a clip of the slash to show how soft the call was, but I legitimately wasn’t able to figure out where the supposed penalty occurred. The Sportsnet broadcast showed a replay but all John Shorthouse could say was, “Hopefully, that wasn’t it.”
- That was the PITB Transformative Moment™ (which is legally distinct from TSN Turning Point) of the game, as the Canucks seemingly forgot how to kill penalties. Derek Forbort, who has been so good on the penalty kill this season, got caught cheating into the middle of the ice, leaving Mikko Rantanen wide open on the right side. Wyatt Johnston put the puck in Rantanen’s wheelhouse and he wheely housed it, hammering the one-timer past Thatcher Demko.
- The Canucks nearly replied immediately, as Brock Boeser set up Jake DeBrusk driving to the net, but the puck hit the post and went across the face of the net, dribbling just wide. For a long, long time, it seemed like that was as close as the Canucks would get to tying this game.
- The Canucks came into the game having killed off their last ten penalties. In fact, since February 1, they had the best penalty kill in the NHL, operating at a stunning 91.7%. So, of course, the Stars scored their second power play goal on their second opportunity. Again, Forbort was out of position, defending the wrong side of the net as Jamie Benn set up Mason Marchment in front, with Thatcher Demko caught looking the wrong way as well.
- Some lovely passing in the second period gave the Stars the 3-0 lead with yet another power play goal, making them 3-for-3 with the man advantage halfway through the game. Mikael Granlund set up Benn in front of the net, but he mimicked a maturing Jamie Tartt and made the extra pass, hitting Matt Duchene at the backdoor for a wide-open net. It was a depressingly nice goal.
- The Canucks came out firing in the third period, kicking things off with their first goal 17 seconds in on their first power play. Conor Garland set up DeBrusk on the rush, but he ran out of room to take a shot. Instead, he got cheeky with it: DeBrusk DeBanked DePuck off DeBack of DeSmith’s DeSkate.
- Bit of a content warning for the squeamish on the below video, as Teddy Blueger drew a high sticking call on Marchment that split his chin right open. There was no denying the double minor, as Marchment gave Blueger a Dan Hedaya chin that clearly required stitches.
- The Canucks struck on the first penalty of the double minor, making them 2-for-2, as both teams seemed to forget how to kill penalties. Surprisingly, the goalscorer was Victor Mancini, getting his first as a Canuck. Filip Hronek picked off a clearing attempt while deep in the offensive zone and Aatu Räty relayed the puck to Mancini. With Linus Karlsson providing the screen, Mancini whipped a wrist shot past DeSmith’s blocker to reduce the Stars’ lead to one.
- Here’s a wild fact: Mancini is just the second Canucks defenceman this season to score a power play goal.
- The Canucks’ initial attempt at a comeback stalled out there. With three minutes left, the Stars scored what seemed to be the backbreaker goal, as Räty chased a hit and left Mavrik Bourque open in the slot to finish off a Jason Robertson pass from below the goal line. But the Canucks recovered from the broken back like Bruce Wayne in The Pit.
- Of course, it took a lot of pain for Bruce Wayne to recover, so Granlund added an empty-net goal to make it 5-2 just 24 seconds later. The Canucks could have been forgiven for giving up at that point; they didn’t.
- Marcus Pettersson made the 5-3 goal happen. The lanky defenceman made a superb play to step around Bourque at the point, then set up an Elias Pettersson shot. When that shot was stopped, Marcus rolled a natural 20 on a Sleight of Hand check and picked the pocket of Wyatt Johnston to keep the play alive, then curled into the high slot. DeSmith came out to challenge the obvious opportunity to shoot, but Marcus instead fed Räty, and the Rätuvian one beat a sliding DeSmith under the blocker.
- Räty’s goal came with exactly one minute remaining in the game. A comeback still felt impossible, which is why it felt so silly when Jamie Benn angrily snapped his stick on the goalpost. Yes, Räty was his man, but Benn, my dude, you were still up by two goals and in a situation where no team had ever successfully come back before. Why was he so pressed? Can Jamie Benn see into the future like Raven Symone?
- The Canucks pulled Demko for the extra attacker again and this time it paid off. Conor Garland made a brilliant play on the right side of the ice. He faked a shot to send Esa Lindell down to one knee, then quickly cut to his right and swung the puck around Lindell to Pius Suter in the slot. It’s amazing how no one paid any attention to Suter; it was a lot like when he didn’t sign until mid-August in the 2023 offseason.
- Räty wasn’t quite the faceoff ace that he has been at times this season, going 5-and-8 on the draws. He won the most important faceoff, though: the one after Suter’s first goal with 30 seconds left. That gave the Canucks possession with limited time left on the clock, so they could once again get Demko to the bench for the extra attacker. Räty immediately bolted for the bench; it was a three-second shift.
- Hughes fed the puck up to Suter, and he dumped it in the corner where Hronek, DeBrusk, and Brock Boeser could swarm the puck. Suter then joined the battle and jarred the puck loose to Boeser, who swung it up to Garland, who set up a Hughes point shot. The puck ricocheted off Suter’s stick, then Hronek’s midsection, and went just wide, but Hronek jumped on the loose puck and threw it towards the net, where it deflected out to a waiting Suter, who was once again all alone. He chipped it top shelf where Grandma keeps the good booze.
- The goal was great; Garland’s leaping goal celebration when he realized the puck had actually gone in was the cherry on top. It took all the strength in my bones not to add a “Wheeee!” sound effect to the video.
- “It’s crazy, the resilience,” said Kiefer Sherwood. “I’ve never been part of a team that has so many crazy comebacks and rollercoaster come-from-behinds. It says a lot about the group and the quality players; when adversity hits, we just dig in, and guys are able to execute and make stuff happen.”
- “I think it’s huge for development,” said Tocchet. “You’re sitting on the bench as a young kid, it’s 5-2 with whatever time was left; it looks like we’re going to lose. Then we score a goal, and you see the fight, the diagrams — ‘Hey, we’re doing this’ — and it wasn’t guys hanging their heads. I think it’s huge for the young guys.”
- Can you imagine any fans who left the arena after the empty-net goal in order to beat traffic? It’s why I never leave any sporting event early. Sure, a team coming back from three goals down in that short a timeframe had never happened before, but that’s why you don’t leave: you have a chance to see something that never happened before!
- “My son texted me, he said it looked like last year’s team in the third,” said Tocchet. “He gave me a little shot, my son.”
- Tocchet sent Räty out again in overtime to win the opening faceoff, putting him on with two defencemen: Hughes and Hronek. Unfortunately, Räty and Roope Hintz got tossed out of the faceoff, which meant Hronek had to step in. Incredibly, the defenceman won the faceoff — the first faceoff won by a Canucks defenceman since Kevin Bieksa won the faceoff before the ludicrous line brawl between the Canucks and Calgary Flames in 2014 that led to John Tortorella trying to invade the Flames’ locker room in the intermission.
- “He just said he’s 1-and-0 in his career,” said Tocchet. “I don’t think he’s ever taken a faceoff. Listen, to win hockey games, you’ve got to expect the unexpected. Filip Hronek winning a draw in overtime — when’s that ever going to happen?”
- We sometimes joke about Hughes never leaving the ice in overtime. On Tuesday, he literally never left the ice in overtime. Hughes played all three minutes and 44 seconds of the extra frame, an absurdly long shift. Yes, some of that time was spent on a 4-on-3 power play — a penalty drawn by Suter, natch — but that’s still a long, long time to stay on the ice. It brought his total ice time up to 31:28 in the game; that’s still only his third-highest ice time of the season.
- “I thought our captain was really good tonight. I thought Quinn was outrageously good,” said Tocchet. “He played a lot — I don’t even know what he played — but I thought he controlled a lot of the play. He took it upon himself to will the game and I think everybody jumped on his back.”
- Please don’t jump on Quinn Hughes’s back. Judging from the expression that is always on his face, Hughes is already carrying the weight of the world; he doesn’t need to carry anything else.
- The Canucks couldn’t capitalize on the power play but, on the subsequent 4-on-4, Garland swooped in on the forecheck to steal the puck from Mathew Dumba. With the Stars anticipating the breakout, Kiefer Sherwood was left all alone in front of the net and Garland put the puck on his tape. He one-timed the puck past DeSmith with the third weapon of the Spanish Inquisition: ruthless efficiency.
- That capped off a great game for Garland, giving him a three-point night, with all of them primary assists. Like Ron Perlman in 1987, it was a beastly performance.
- “It’s 4-on-4, so we’re just trying to possess it and see what kind of openings we can get,” said Sherwood. “Half the time, you just want to get it in Huggy’s hands. But after we lost the puck, Gar just made an absolute crazy play. It kind of felt like slow motion, he just got his head up and already put it on my tape in my wheelhouse. I just put it in.”
- It’s been hours since the Canucks pulled off the comeback. I’m still in shock. It doesn’t seem real. That didn’t actually happen, right? I imagined it in the midst of some sort of fever dream, surely. Sure, I don’t have a fever, but is that really a requirement for a fever dream? It is? Oh.
- This was a legendary, historical comeback. Literally historical. It may ultimately not have any meaning for this season, but it’s a game that will go down in NHL trivia history, and isn’t that what really matters?
