Lankinen makes 27 saves, Canucks shut out Panthers

Sergei Bobrovsky made 15 saves for the Panthers (18-10-2), who had their seven-game point streak end (6-0-1).

It was the first time this season Florida had been shut out.

“I think it was a closer game than the score kind of dictated,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “They got some good bounces, but they also made their breaks. To get odd-man rushes on us, it's not easy, so I think when you put pucks to the net good things happen. I think that's something we can kind of learn from.”

Vancouver scored its first three goals off the rush, getting good bounces on each.

Soucy gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 2:23 of the first period. He took a drop pass from Sasson as the trailer on a rush and scored with a shot from the top of the circles that deflected off the stick of Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad over the glove of Bobrovsky.

Danton Heinen made it 2-0 at 18:41. After taking a pass from Heinen on a rush, Sasson faked a shot along the right wing and sent a return pass back toward the crease, where it deflected in off the pad of Bobrovsky and Heinen's skate.

“I knew I had those plays in me,” Sasson said. “I've made actually a couple of those, but definitely seeing the pucks going in the net, it gives you a lot of confidence, and it's great to be able to help the team.”

Boeser pushed it to 3-0 off a nice pass from Miller at 4:53 of the second period. Boeser's initial shot went wide of the net, but it caromed back to him off the end boards and the back of the net, and he scored into an open net with Bobrovsky looking the other way.

“We give up three rush goals and we just don't do that, can't do that, and those are all off our sticks, so we own those,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Other than that, there wasn't much going on either way. I thought they defended hard around their net, and the rest of it was watching paint dry.”