Sunday, November 27, 2005
GAME 25: AVALANCHE 6, CANUCKS 2
Avalanche 6, Canucks 2
[actual post Sat ~1:56p]
The Canucks were still looking to shake their habit of not starting off their games very well. They were also looking to do better against divisional foes. They were also looking to shine up their not-that-good road record as well.
1st period
Not long after the opening faceoff, an Anson Carter giveaway at the Vancouver blueline led to a Colorado 2-on-1 with Milan Hejduk and Joe Sakic. Hejduk never passed over to Sakic and instead wristed the puck past Alex Auld's stick side from beside the slot.
»» 1, COLORADO, Milan Hejduk 5 (Alex Tanguay) 0:11
»» AVALANCHE 1, CANUCKS 0
Antti Laaksonen took the puck in the high slot and threw a right elbow to the pursuing Ed Jovanovski, who fell to the ice. The puck trickled away due to impact, but Andrew Brunette raced in to slap it past Auld's glove side from the low slot.
»» 2, COLORADO, Andrew Brunette 6 (Antti Laaksonen, Ian Laperriere) 4:02
»» AVALANCHE 2, CANUCKS 0
Midway through the period, Brendan Morrison passed from behind the net to Markus Naslund on the right side, who quickly put a wrister on the net, but the short side was quickly covered up by David Aebischer. Later, a long lead pass led to a Colorado 2-on-2 with Sakic and Hejduk. With Mattias Ohlund defending him, Sakic simply put a puck on goal that was stopped by Auld's equipment but it bounced into the air and went off Ohlund's arm and went into the net past Auld's stick side.
»» 3, COLORADO, Joe Sakic 8 (Brett Clark, Tanguay) 11:32
»» AVALANCHE 3, CANUCKS 0
Marek Svatos took a very long lead pass after getting behind the Vancouver defense. With Carter trying to pull him down, Svatos still had control of the puck after Auld whiffed on a pokecheck, and the puck got through the five-hole before the three players crashed into the net.
»» 4, COLORADO, powerplay, Marek Svatos 12 (John-Michael Liles, Brett McLean) 18:42
»» AVALANCHE 4, CANUCKS 0
Shots were 17-12 in Colorado's favor. Colorado was 1-for-4 on the power play while the Canucks were 0-for-1 in their horrible first period. Bad, bad, bad.
2nd period
Richard Park was foiled in front by Aebsicher with about 14:37 to go. With 7:45 to go, Bertuzzi passed back to Ryan Kesler, whose backhand shot was robbed by Aebischer, who was on his back and had the puck go off his stick and wide. Brendan Morrison took a pass from Sami Salo and from the left hash found a sliver of space between the left post and Patrice Brisebois and reached the top shelf. David Aebischer, who may have been a bit in front of the crease trying to raise hell, had been pushed down by Todd Bertuzzi just before the shot was released. Morrison had gone twelve games without a goal.
»» 5, VANCOUVER, powerplay, Brendan Morrison 4 (Sami Salo, Markus Naslund) 14:31
»» AVALANCHE 4, CANUCKS 1
Shots were 14-9 in Vancouver, who finally woke up a bit compared to their awful first period. The Canucks were 1-for-2 on the power play and held the Avalanche scoreless on three pwoer plays.
3rd period
Todd Bertuzzi passed from the left-wing boards to Bryan Allen in front of the crease. Allen wristed it past the open glove side of Aebischer to cut the Colorado lead to two.
»» 6, VANCOUVER, Bryan Allen 2 (Todd Bertuzzi, Naslund) 8:14
»» AVALANCHE 4, CANUCKS 2
With the Canucks on a power play, Auld tried to get the puck ahead to the blue line, where it was stolen. Laaksonen and Dan Hinote got on the rush, and Hinote took the puck toward the net and may have fanned on a deke attempt but the puck softly moved through Auld's legs for the dagger goal.
»» 7, COLORADO, shorthanded, Dan Hinote 1 (Laaksonen) 12:34
»» AVALANCHE 5, CANUCKS 2
Burnaby Joe stepped in again, unleashed a laser wrister from the left circle over Auld's right leg.
»» 8, COLORADO, Sakic 9 (Tanguay, Hejduk) 13:21
»» AVALANCHE 6, CANUCKS 2
Shots were 14-10 on Vancouver's favor for the period and 40-36 for the game. Vancouver was 0-for-2 on the power play and Colorado was 0-for-1 in the period. Vancouver finished 1-for-5 while the Avalanche were 1-for-8, but they had the shorthanded goal that sealed it as well. Alex Auld stopped 30 Colorado shots.
Three stars -- (1) Colorado's Joe Sakic, (2) Colorado's Alex Tanguay, (3) Colorado's David Aebsicher
skater, goals-assists-points
Naslund 0-2-2
Allen 1-0-1
Morrison 1-0-1
Bertuzzi 0-1-1
Salo 0-1-1
The Canucks were 32-for-61 (52%) in the faceoff circle. Brendan Morrison was 12-for-19, Trevor Linden was 3-for-10 (ouch), Ryan Kesler was 6-for-11, and Henrik Sedin was 11-for-17. Ed Jovanovski dished out three hits and Sami Salo blocked three shots. Bryan Allen notched three takeaways. Anson Carter and Markus Naslund led the team with five shots apiece.
No Canuck skaters were on the plus side of the ledger of plus/minus. Kesler, Steve McCarthy, Wade Brookbank, and Jarkko Ruutu were the even skaters. Mattias Ohlund, Allen, Sami Salo, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, and Carter were minus-2. All other Canuck skaters were minus-1.
This game put the Canucks down to 15-8-2 (good for 32 points), rounding out an 0-for-2 road trip. This game also left the top three teams in the Northwest Division all within three points of one another.
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