VANCOUVER — It's been a big week for Vancouver Canucks defenceman Guillaume Brisebois.
Last Tuesday, the 25-year-old signed a two-year contract extension. Seven days later, he scored his first NHL goal, helping the Canucks to a 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars.
The accomplishments are big, Brisebois said, but there's still work to be done.
“I'm really happy about it, but I'm not satisfied with it," he said. "I think I have to build on that. And I think that's gonna build a little bit of confidence. But I’ve still got to play really hard and prove myself every day.”
Selected by the Canucks in third round of the 2015 draft, Brisebois has long toiled in the minors. Tuesday marked his 22nd NHL game over six seasons of professional hockey.
Getting contributions from depth players has been important to Vancouver's recent success, said coach Rick Tocchet.
“I’ve got affection for those guys," he said after the Canucks collected their fifth straight win. "Those guys are trying to make the NHL, right? And they bought in right away. They're not perfect, nobody's perfect. But the next shift or the next practice, they pick themselves up. I love that about them.”
J.T. Miller led Vancouver (29-32-5) in scoring with a goal and an assist on his 30th birthday, while Phillip Di Giuseppe, Andrei Kuzmenko and Anthony Beauvillier also filled the net. Brock Boeser registered three assists and Conor Garland had two.
The Stars (37-18-13) got a goal and an assist from Jamie Benn, while Wyatt Johnston scored his 18th of the season and Miro Heiskanen contributed a pair of helpers.
Thatcher Demko made 25 saves for Vancouver and Dallas's Matt Murray stopped 15-of-20 shots in his second NHL start.
The loss snapped a three-game win streak for the Stars, who took a 5-2 victory over the Kraken in Seattle on Monday.
"There's no quit in our group," said Stars coach Peter DeBoer. "I didn't think we had our best stuff tonight and I anticipated that with kind of the road we've been on here for the last week but still a winnable game."
Miller sealed the score with a highlight-reel shot 16:59 into the third period. The centre deftly moved the puck from his skate to his stick and blasted a one-timer past Murray for his 25th goal of the season.
Brisebois scored 4:09 into the third, sending a one-timer soaring from the hash marks to put Vancouver up 4-2.
Dallas closed out the second with a power-play marker.
Vancouver's Elias Pettersson got a short-handed breakaway, but Murray made a right-pad stop and Heiskanen streaked back down the ice with the rebound. He chipped a pass to Benn, who sent a blast past Demko from the top of the slot to make it 3-2 with five seconds left in the period.
The goal was Benn's 29th of the campaign.
Dallas was 1 for 3 with the man advantage Tuesday while Vancouver went 1 for 3.
Beauvillier put the Canucks up 3-1 midway through the second, stretching his stick out and redirecting Christian Wolanin's long bomb into the Dallas net 11:53 into the period.
A slick pass from Benn helped put the visitors on the board less than a minute into in the middle frame. The Stars captain fed Johnston and the rookie fired a shot past Demko 48 seconds into the period, cutting Vancouver's lead to 2-1.
The Canucks got off to a speedy start Tuesday with two goals on their first three shots of the night.
Kuzmenko tallied his 33rd of the season six minutes into the game with a sharp-angle shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle after Jani Hakanpaa was called for interference.
Boeser got an assist on the play, marking his 300th regular-season NHL point.
The right-winger set up Vancouver's first strike earlier in the frame, sending a pass to Miller, who spotted Di Giuseppe beside the net and put the puck on his tape. Di Giuseppe tapped it in backdoor to open the scoring with his third goal of the season at the 1:35 mark.
HOME ICE ADVANTAGE
The game wrapped a six-game homestand that saw the Canucks go 5-1-0 and improve to 16-17-1 at Rogers Arena.
GONE STREAKING
Heiskanen hit the score sheet for a career-high eighth straight game. The Finnish defenceman has three goals and 11 assists across the stretch.
“(I) just try to play my game, just go out there and have fun, play hard, work hard and that's it," he said. "I just try to skate a lot and play a lot with the puck and help the forwards to play some offence."
Kuzmenko (five goals, one assist) and Pettersson (two goals, five assists) extended their point streaks to five games.
INS AND OUTS
DeBoer said earlier Tuesday that winger Mason Marchment was sent back to Dallas to be assessed by doctors after leaving Monday's game with a lower-body injury. Luke Glendening slotted back into Dallas' lineup after missing 11 games.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Kick off a three-game road trip against the Coyotes in Tempe, Ariz. on Thursday.
Stars: Visit the Oilers in Edmonton on Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2023.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: Fixes location of Canucks' next game in second-last paragraph.
