EDMONTON — The game that all but sealed the Pacific Division crown for the Vancouver Canucks turned on a Sam Lafferty goal.

Lafferty, acquired right before the season in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, streaked down the right wing with the clock ticking down in a first period that had heavily favoured the Edmonton Oilers.

After a hot start that saw him promoted up the lineup and into the top six for a stretch, Lafferty’s production has cooled significantly over the past few months. Dating back 41 games, Lafferty had been healthy scratched as frequently as he’d scored — until Saturday night.

On this particular play, however, he caught Stuart Skinner well out of position and cheating short side. Lafferty pulled the puck for a wrist shot, picked his spot and opened the scoring.

It was the goal Vancouver needed to beat the Oilers 3-1 in a game that, make no mistake, the club had circled on its calendar.

“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t looking at this game all week,” Tyler Myers said. “We didn’t try to force anything or open things up. It was a playoff atmosphere, a playoff-type game. … It was a great win tonight, especially at this time of year.

“We’ve been working to trend back to our top level as a group, and I think tonight was a really good effort for us. We let the game come to us as a team, and it was a great team win.”

The #Canucks defeat the Oilers, 3-1, thanks to DeSmith making 32 saves, and getting timely goals from Lafferty, Suter, and Joshua!@MichelobULTRACA HIGHLIGHTS | https://t.co/g2N11iAtjO pic.twitter.com/RdTSkGghS2

— X – Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) April 14, 2024

The Canucks are wildly imposing when they score first. Their five-on-five defensive game is their most potent trait, and they seem incredibly comfortable in their skin — to steal a Tocchetism from Vancouver’s bench boss — when holding a lead.

And that showed through again in the second frame, as Vancouver’s forecheck punished the Oilers repeatedly, mostly keeping the play 150 feet from Casey DeSmith and in the Oilers’ end of the ice.

For large stretches of the second period, the Oilers, looking more limited than usual offensively without Connor McDavid, broke the puck out far too slowly. They were herded repeatedly into Vancouver’s neutral-zone wedge, with the Canucks counterattacking sharply again and again as the Oilers happily played into their hands.

One such counter, led intelligently by Myers, spotted the Canucks an insurance marker. Myers pounced off another Oilers neutral-zone giveaway and skated into the Oilers’ end, sending a slap pass into the slot that was deflected home by Pius Suter for his first goal since March 8.

This is the sort of win that has become a staple for the Canucks. This isn’t a team that gets the lead and then sits back. There’s little discernible difference between the Canucks’ style of play when tied, trailing or leading.

They forecheck with serious aggression, even when they’re up. And oftentimes, they win the puck deep, although that’s not the primary function of their forecheck.

The primary function is to challenge their opponents to string together several consecutive difficult skilled passes under pressure, which are needed to break through Vancouver’s neutral-zone wedge. Accomplish this difficult task and a quality chance should result. Fail and the puck is coming back into your end as the Canucks grind time off the clock and look to capitalize on your impatience in padding their lead.

“All year that’s been our mode, being able to protect leads and grind it out,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “That’s one thing these guys hang their hat on.”

Toward the latter half of the second frame, the Oilers were able to get the puck moving more quickly on the breakout. It helped them pull the game back to 2-1 when Evander Kane got a bounce on a deflection goal that beat Casey DeSmith. The play was well defended, too, as you’d expect from the Canucks, with the possible exception of a lost board battle preceding the goal, during which Filip Hronek might’ve been able to earn the clear if he’d come out with a 50/50 puck.

Finally, in the third period, the Canucks capped their division-sealing victory with a composed, disciplined, low-event performance. The Oilers generated next to nothing in the way of meaningful pressure or scoring chances, growing visibly frustrated as the clock ticked down to 0:00.

It was a fitting way for the Canucks to cap their unlikely ascension to the top of the Pacific Division this season. A win that served to boost the offensive confidence of some crucial depth forwards who’d been mostly shooting blanks in recent weeks, and to remind their fans — and the Western Conference — of the ingredients that make this team formidable, even on a night when its superstar players aren’t loudly heard from.

“It’s huge,” Tocchet said of the depth contributions Saturday night. “If we’re going to go anywhere, we need everybody. It’s not just going to be the big guys. You’re going to need four lines and six defence, and maybe we’ll have to go deeper on the roster. We’re going to need everybody.”

The speed on the forecheck. The size on the back end. The lockdown defensive game at even strength. The ability to frustrate their opponents and choke out the game with boa-constrictor-like ruthlessness, particularly when the club can score first and play with the lead.

Though the Pacific Division isn’t clinched just yet, it’s now all but official: Vancouver will win the Pacific Division during the 2023-24 season, an accomplishment almost no one saw coming. And as much as Saturday night’s victory was about that, it was far more about the more important prize that will be up for grabs beginning next weekend and the solid, tried and tested template the Canucks have developed for how to win.

(Photo of Nils Hoglander and Ryan McLeod: Perry Nelson / USA Today)