Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves in the Vancouver Canucks's 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday. His performance helped end the Capitals' six-game win streak. The Capitals are atop the League and Metropolitan Division leaderboard with 71 points and a record of 33-11-5.
Lankinen was proud of his team’s effort, saying,
"Yeah, I'm really, really proud," Lankinen said. "Obviously. What a bounce back from a couple couple difficult weeks maybe we had, but I think tonight, the team Whipper was there. Everybody battled through, and I'm really proud of the boys."
When asked about his performance, Kevin Lankinen said he felt re-energized.
"Oh, just felt good to be back. You know, re-energized and just fun to play in front of you guys. So it was a cool, cool night." Lankinen said.
Quinn Hughes - who is signed to a six-year, $47,100,000 contract (via Spotrac) - played a big role in the win, scoring both goals for the Canucks.
"I mean, he's a lead is probably the best, best defenseman, that you know is out there right now, and he's just fun to watch," Lankinen praised his captain Hughes. "He's a great leader on the ice and you know what he did today is pretty special."
His first goal came at 12:23 of the first period. After Lars Eller missed two chances, Hughes received a pass from Nils Höglander, moved into the slot, and backhanded a shot past a screened Charlie Lindgren.
Hughes scored again at 1:24 of the second period. He skated across the blue line and sent a wrist shot through traffic over Lindgren’s blocker.
Kevin Lankinen praised the Canucks defense for the win against Capitals
Despite getting outshot 33-25 by the Capitals and being limited in the faceoffs with 45.5 percent, the Canucks held onto the 2-1 win. Kevin Lankinen kept the Canucks in the games by stopping key saves.
Lankinen credited Vancouver's defense for helping him see the pucks.
“Obviously playing the top team, [the defensemen] were really good in front of me, allowing me to see the pucks, " Lankinen said., per NHL.com, "And Quinn took over the game, showed what a great leader he is stepping up in situations like this. So it was huge.”
The win helped the Canucks improve to 21-17-10. Despite the victory, Hughes emphasized the need for consistency.
“It's massive, just because how we've been playing, obviously not good enough, and to come out here against a really good team and play as well as we did, that's a really good sign," Hughes said.
The Vancouver Canucks and Kevin Lankinen will look to build on this significant win in their next game against the Blues.