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Instant Reaction: Canucks battle back late again to give Ducks a scare, but lose 5-4

Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By David Quadrelli

Nov 3, 2026, 23:45 EST

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Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!

Lineup

DeBrusk – Pettersson – Boeser
Öhgren – Rossi – Lekkerimäki
O’Connor – Quillan – Karlsson
Cotter – Sasson – Gallagher

EP25 – Hronek
Oleksiak – Buium
Brisebois – Mancini

Lankinen

Tom Willander tweaked something at morning skate and wasn’t in the Canucks’ lineup for this one. Guillaume Brisebois slotted in in his place.

First Period

Jacob Quillan was called for tripping Roger McQueen, and the ever-dangerous Anaheim power play got a chance to work less than five minutes into this one. A quick theme of this game was Anaheim’s efficiency on the power play, as they wasted little time in opening the scoring in this one.

Power play goal for Anaheim!Scored by Mikael Granlund with 15:56 left in the 1st. Assisted by Beckett Sennecke and Jackson LaCombe.VAN: 0 | ANA: 1#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T02:36:35.599696Z

1-0 Ducks.

On his next shift since taking the penalty, Jacob Quillan threw a nice body check on Pavel Mintyukov and accepted a fight from young Roger McQueen as a result. Quillan more than held his own, and we’d say that he won this bout, too. According to hockeyfights.com, that is Quillan’s second career fight. The first came last October in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies.

McQueen got the extra two minutes, giving the Canucks their first power play of the game.

And the Canucks sure looked good on this one. Both units moved the puck with speed and poise, and eventually, it was the second unit breaking through with 35 seconds left to work with on the man advantage. It was Liam Öhgren who beat Laurent Brossoit for the first time on the night to tie things up.

Power play goal for Vancouver!Scored by Liam Ohgren with 13:56 left in the 1st. Assisted by Marco Rossi and Paul Cotter.VAN: 1 | ANA: 1#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T02:37:25.890410Z

1-1.

Back at 5v5, the Canucks’ top line was making things happen and was overwhelming the Ducks’ defencemen. It didn’t amount to a goal, but worth mentioning that they brought their A-game right after the power play.

Unfortunately, the Canucks gave the Ducks the game’s next power play, and even more unfortunate — it came on a play where it looked like Liam Öhgren had given them a lead with his second goal of the game. Öhgren pulled off a well-timed sticklift on Jackson LaCombe and immediately pulled the trigger, beating Laurent Brossoit five-hole. The referee closest to the action called a hook, however, washing out the goal and putting Öhgren in the box. By the letter of the (current) law, it was a hook, but back in my day, that was not a hook.

To make matters even more unfortunate, the Ducks scored on the ensuing power play, as Cutter Gauthier took a pass from Beckett Sennecke and beat Lankinen cleanly.

Power play goal for Anaheim!Scored by Cutter Gauthier with 02:53 left in the 1st. Assisted by Beckett Sennecke and Jackson LaCombe.VAN: 1 | ANA: 2#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T03:04:35.746292Z

2-1 Ducks after 20.

Some takeaways from the first:
-Actually a pretty solid first period for the Canucks, especially at even-strength.
-First time I’ve ever written “back in my day,” in anything I’ve published, and it felt great. I think I’ll do this a lot more often.

Second Period

Travis Mitchell took a holding penalty two minutes into the second, giving the Canucks their second power play opportunity of the game. This one did not go as well as their first one. The Ducks managed to get an odd-man rush on Brock Boeser, and Leo Carlsson made no mistake in rifling his shot cleanly past Kevin Lankinen.

Short-handed goal for Anaheim!Scored by Leo Carlsson with 17:02 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Pavel Mintyukov and Mikael Granlund.VAN: 1 | ANA: 3#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T03:31:34.607415Z

3-1 Ducks.

Moments later, Beckett Sennecke fired a shot from just insider the blue line that caught Lankinen off guard and beat the Canucks’ goaltender stick-side. Thankfully for him, the shot rang off the post, but that’s another shot in this game — and not a particularly dangerous one like some of the others — that Lankinen just looked completely uncompetitive on. It’s been a real tough go for him this season.

Jacob Quillan fought for a second time, this time dropping the gloves with Travis Mitchell. This seemed to have sparked the Canucks (okay maybe not, but that is what I’m going with), and after Drew O’Connor forced a turnover behind the goal line, Linus Karlsson scored the first even-strength goal of the night to pull the Canucks within one.

Vancouver goal!Scored by Linus Karlsson with 11:43 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Drew O'Connor.VAN: 2 | ANA: 3#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T03:32:19.308897Z

3-2.

Not on my bingo card for this game: Three fights. After all, we’ve seen just one from the Canucks this season — Luke Schenn back on October 3rd against Calgary. This game’s third fight came when Jamie Oleksiak dropped the gloves with Jeff Malott, whose brother Mike fights in the UFC’s Welterweight Division (and is one of my favourite fighters and has been skyrocketing up the rankings, for those who care). Jeff sure looked like Mike in that fight. Check it out at hockeyfights.com.

On the play, Drew Helleson was called for goaltender interference, putting the Canucks back on the power play for the third time. The Canucks’ power play moved the puck around well but didn’t score, and soon after, with just under three minutes left in the frame, it was the Ducks’ turn to work on the power play again as Max Sasson held onto Cutter Gauthier.

And it was Gauthier who made the Canucks’ pay, as the young Ducks sharpshooter one-timed a Beckett Sennecke pass over Lankinen’s glove to push the Ducks’ lead to two heading into the third. This one sure looked similar to his first goal of the game, too.

Power play goal for Anaheim!Scored by Cutter Gauthier with 01:35 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund.VAN: 2 | ANA: 4#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T03:52:20.946608Z

Some takeaways from the second period:
-The Winnipeg Jets did WHAT tonight?!
-Excellent period from Drew O’Connor.
-Anaheim power play 3-for-3 after 40. Canucks’ 1-for-3 on their PP opportunities.
-Elias Junior Pettersson’s defensive game is so impressive. His gap control really stood out in this period.

Third Period

Might I just say that the O’Connor – Quillan – Karlsson line was absolutely buzzing tonight? They turned in a great shift to start this period.

Cutter Gauthier pushed the Anaheim lead to three four minutes into the third when he wristed a shot past a sliding Kevin Lankinen to complete the hat-trick.

Anaheim goal!Scored by Cutter Gauthier with 15:49 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Beckett Sennecke and Tristan Luneau.VAN: 2 | ANA: 5#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T04:21:35.470044Z

5-2.

Look, the Canucks didn’t play particularly well, and Gauthier is a heck of a shooter, but Manny Malhotra’s comments from the other day about how Leevi has been giving them a chance to win, which is why they’ve been riding with him, certainly came to mind after this goal.

The Canucks may not have gotten much help from their goaltender tonight, but they still didn’t go away quietly. Max Sasson collided with Laurent Brossoit and drew the ire of Noah Warren, dropping the gloves with the Ducks defenceman. Then away from that fight, Sam Colangelo and Paul Cotter shed their mitts and traded hands. Find them all at hockeyfights.com!

The Canucks got a power play as a result of all this, and remember what happened a week ago in Anaheim…?

An attempt to repeat those festivities began after Brock Boeser thwarted an Anaheim clearing attempt, found Elias Pettersson, who quickly got the puck over to Jake DeBrusk, who shovelled the puck towards the goal and past Brossoit.

Power play goal for Vancouver!Scored by Jake DeBrusk with 14:30 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.VAN: 3 | ANA: 5#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T04:22:23.644714Z

5-3…

And you’ve seen this movie before. After Elias Pettersson did incredibly well to kickstart the Canucks’ zone exit and subsequent entry after protecting the puck through the neutral zone, Brock Boeser and Pettersson played catch before finding a streaking Jamie Oleksiak, whose shot deflected in off Jake DeBrusk on its way to the goal and beat Brossoit to bring the Canucks within one with 10 minutes to go.

Vancouver goal!Scored by Jake DeBrusk with 10:26 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Jamie Oleksiak and Elias Pettersson.VAN: 4 | ANA: 5#ANAvsVAN #Canucks #FlyTogether

— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T04:31:36.525226Z

5-4 Ducks.

With just under two mintes left, the Canucks pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker, and did their best to find Jonathan Lekkerimäki. And why wouldn’t they? Unfortunately, they came up just short in this one.

The entertainment value and effort have certainly been there for the Canucks this season, and you can’t ask for much more than that. Tonight was another wildly entertaining game, and in the end, it paid off: they landed the first overall pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

Can the Canucks and Ducks play each other at least 10 times a year?

What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below! And be sure to tune into Rink Wide Vancouver LIVE after the game on the Daily Faceoff Vancouver YouTube channel. Check out our live programming button in the top right of our website for easy access!