HC Rick Tocchet lauds efforts of Vancouver Canucks young players in crucial 6-2 win over Ducks

Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet had nothing but praise for his team's young players in Saturday's crucial 6-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

The Canucks potted five goals with five different players in just 4:30 in the first period, the fastest five scores at any point of a game in franchise history.

The Canucks' 21-year-old rookie defenseman Elias Pettersson netted the first goal of the game. Max Sasson, Conor Garland, Filip Hronek, Dakota Joshua and Brock Boeser also scored.

“That's the attitude you have to have. I don't care if you're 10-0, you're young or down 10-0. You're a young kid. You're a young kid — when you get opportunity, every shift you get is an opportunity. So you have to think that way,” Tocchet said.

“I mean, everybody’s got to think that way, but especially young guys. I thought the young guys, since they've been up, they're giving us all they got. They're playing hard for us.”

Tocchet acknowledged that while there were mistakes, things will improve over time and he was really impressed with the effort shown by the young players.

The Canucks are now six points away from the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference with one game in hand.

"Getting to the postseason is slim," Tocchet acknowledged, "but we talked [on Friday] about details and professionalism, that's something we've got to work on every day, so got to give a lot of credit. Really enjoyed the first period, a lot of fun watching the guys make some plays."

Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks, while Thatcher Demko stopped 30 shots for the Canucks. His counterpart Lukas Dostal had 20 saves in the loss.

Game recap: Canucks 6-2 win against Ducks

Terry opened the scoring for the Ducks just 1:21 into the first period, sniping a shot over Demko’s glove from below the right face-off dot.

Pettersson evened things up at 9:40 from a drop pass from Linus Karlsson. Filip Hronek scored just over a minute later to give his team a 2-1 lead, firing a wrist shot from near the blue line. Boeser scored on the power play at 11:32, tipping a pass from Hughes.

Conor Garland added another power-play goal at 13:25 on a rebound from a Hughes shot to make it 4-1. Dakota Joshua then buried a loose puck to make it 5-1 at 14:10.

In the second period, Zegras scored from below the left circle at 2:49 to cut the lead to 5-2. Max Sasson then finished with a breakaway goal at 5:33 of the third, sealing the 6-2 win for Vancouver.