The Vancouver Canucks on Sunday played their first game since March 24 following the team’s massive COVID-19 outbreak.
And boy, was it an emotional night.
Vancouver went down 2-0 to the Maple Leafs late in the second period, but tied things up midway through the third. Toronto nearly put things away in the final moments of the game, but the Canucks held firm to sent it to overtime.
Bo Hovart potted the game-winner 1:19 in, and the reaction from his team was electric.
Obviously, this was a major milestone for a team that saw nearly two dozen players fall ill. And they were not shy about their emotions after the game.
“This gives our group a lot of confidence,” Hovart told reporters during his postgame video press conference, via the team. “We needed something like this to drive us through the schedule coming up. Having confidence right away is important.”
“It was a gutsy effort from our group,” netminder Braden Holtby said, “we all just went out there and gave it all we had. We stuck together and believed we had a chance to win.”
And what a win it was.
