Canucks badly outshot, but DeSmith and crew 'find a way' to beat Oilers 4-3

Casey DeSmith made a strong first impression in his Vancouver Canucks debut on Saturday.

Casey DeSmith made a strong first impression in his Vancouver Canucks debut on Saturday.

DeSmith made 37 saves and Nils Hoglander had a goal and an assist as the Canucks continued their early season dominance over the Edmonton Oilers, emerging with a 4-3 victory.

“Obviously, coming to a new team it feels so good to contribute early and get two points and be a big part of the win and just kind of come together as a team early. And I think we’re doing that,” said DeSmith, who played five seasons in Pittsburgh before being dealt to Montreal this summer and then subsequently flipped to Vancouver before the start of the season.

“Good teams find a way, so it’s a good way to start off the season, finding a way.”

Andrei Kuzmenko, Jack Studnicka and Sam Lafferty also scored for the Canucks (2-0), who whipped the same Oilers 8-1 in their season-opener on Wednesday. Vancouver was winless in its first seven games last season.

“We had some good pushback, we killed a lot of penalties, we had some guys on fumes, we were overusing some guys because of the penalty kill, so I give a lot of credit to the guys,” said Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet, whose team killed five of seven penalties against the potent Oilers power play.

“I thought Casey DeSmith was outstanding, he battled his ass off. Petey (Elias Pettersson) I think he played with every person on a line and he did a great job. The whole team did a nice job.”