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Instant Reaction: Canucks hang on for 60 minutes, but fall to Hurricanes in OT 4-3
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Photo credit: © James Guillory-Imagn Images
David Quadrelli
Nov 14, 2025, 21:55 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!

Starting Lineup

The big story: No Quinn Hughes. Let’s ride.

First Period

This game started with a couple of questionable plays from the Marcus Pettersson-Tyler Myers pairing. First, Pettersson pinched on a puck it really seemed like he had no real chance of getting to, leading to an odd-man rush the other way (it didn’t help that Lukas Reichel was the forward back). Thankfully, Kevin Lankinen was sharp early on.
This allowed the Canucks to open the scoring, as Max Sasson dashed in to steal a loose puck and rip a shot five-hole as the Canucks were up 1-0 off their first shot of the game.
1-0. 
The Hurricanes did not take long to respond, as Sebastian Aho batted down a Tyler Myers clearing attempt and fed Andrei Svechnikov, who made no mistake in blasting a one-timer past Kevin Lankinen.
1-1. 
54 seconds later, with the Canes on a power play (they shouldn’t have been, the officials got a high-sticking call very, very wrong), Svechnikov scored again.
The Canucks’ PK has been bad this season, but five seconds into an opposing power play has to be a record for them this season.
2-1 Canes. 
Evander Kane took a high-sticking penalty, giving the Canes’ power play another chance to take advantage of a vulnerable Canucks penalty kill.
Instead, it was the Canucks who took advantage of the Canes! Elias Pettersson picked off a careless drop pass from Sean Walker and didn’t hesitate before ripping home a perfectly placed wrist shot to tie this one up.
2-2.
Some takeaways from the first period:
-Canucks are lucky to be in this game after 20. Seven shot attempts for the Canucks, and 23 for Carolina.
-I liked some of Tom Willander’s defensive reads early.

Second Period

The second period began with Kevin Lankinen needing to make a couple of great saves. The big one was this one off of K’Andre Miller:
The Canucks got their first power play opportunity of the game, and quickly made good on it. Filip Hronek, Elias Pettersson, and Brock Boeser looked sharp in moving the puck around. Eventually, Pettersson and Boeser’s passing resulted in exposing the Carolina PK with a neat seam pass to Conor Garland, who gave the Canucks the lead once again!
3-2 Canucks.
The Canucks’ process was much better to start the second period, and they nearly went up by two when Tom Willander batted a puck behind Pyotr Kochetkov. The Canucks went back to the power play after Drew O’Connor raced back to break up a scoring chance, then drew a slash on his ensuing zone exit. That was a great play from DOC. This time, the Canucks’ PP didn’t convert.
The Canes came on stronger as the period progressed, but thanks to some key saves from Kevin Lankinen and a better job at keeping the Canes to the outside, the Canucks entered the third up by a goal. They also did a great job at limiting the Canes’ rush chances in the second.

Third Period

The Canucks caught a bit of a break as both Seth Jarvis and Jesperi Kotkaniemi didn’t return for the third period due to injury. Obviously, we’re hoping both players are okay, especially Jarvis, who was in clear discomfort after taking a stick to the eye.
K’Andre Miller dumped Evander Kane, injecting some energy into what was a fairly ho hum start to the third. As Kane challenged Miller behind the play (before getting dumped again by another Carolina player), the Hurricanes worked the puck down low and took advantage of some poor defensive coverage from the Canucks to make this a tied game once again.
3-3. 
In the third, the Canucks were the worse team, but again did a relatively good job at keeping the danger level of the Canes’ chances low. On the whole though? High-danger chances were 17-2 in favour of the Canes prior to this certifiably high-danger chance from Linus Karlsson:
The Hurricanes kept pressing, and the third was the Canucks bending but not breaking. And that was enough to get this game to overtime. Side note: Filip Hronek left this game in the final minute after going awkwardly into the boards.

Overtime

The Canucks overtime strategy of possessing the puck and exhausting their opponent is both very fun and very annoying to watch. It was working great until Elias Pettersson lost the puck in the Hurricanes’ end, but the point stands. Why wouldn’t you try to get to the shootout when you’ve got Kevin Lankinen backstopping you?
Unfortunately, the Canucks didn’t get there. After a faceoff win in the Canucks’ end, Sebastian Aho sniped a shot over Kevin Lankinen’s blocker to put the finishing touches on this one.
And honestly, with how thoroughly the Hurricanes controlled this game, the Canucks should feel proud that they were able to get a point out of it.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!

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