DeSmith stops 32 shots and Canucks sweep season series with 3

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Casey DeSmith made 32 saves and the Vancouver Canucks strengthened their lead atop the Pacific Division with a 3-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.

“We’ve been working to trend back to our top level as a group and I thought that was a really good effort by us,” said Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers, who had an assist. “I didn’t think we tried to force things, we let the game come to us as a team and it was a great team win.”

Sam Lafferty, Pius Suter and Dakota Joshua scored for the Canucks, who won all four games between the teams this season. Vancouver has a five-point lead in the division over Edmonton, which still has an extremely slight chance with three games remaining to Vancouver’s two.

“We knew this was a four-point swing toward that goal that we had,” DeSmith said. “It’s not the ultimate goal that we have this season, but it’s definitely something we’ve been working toward and it’s something we take pride in.”