Tuesday, December 13, 2005
GAME 30: CANUCKS 3, RANGERS 2
Canucks 3, Rangers 2
[posted in full Sat ~1:11a]
Matt Cooke returned to the ice for the Canucks, coming back from a broken jaw after missing 17 games. Dan Cloutier, however, is out for the remainder of the season and will undergo surgery for ACL damage. In the game itself, Todd Bertuzzi rushed to the defense of Markus Naslund taking a hit by whaling on Ryan Hogwell, then getting sent to the box for two (instigator), five (fighting), and ten (misconduct), taking a key offensive player for the Canucks off the ice for a big chunk of the game. Add to this that Dominic Moore, brother of Steve Moore, was active and playing for the Rangers. There was a collision between Moore and Bertuzzi, in fact.
Nonetheless, it's still a great road win for Vancouver. It's their third straight, and all against Eastern Conference opponents.
As for Dan Cloutier, he'll have to wait until next year, or possibly this year's playoffs to prove himself once and for all to the Vancouver faithful.
In odd news, they had the radio crew sitting five rows up from the ice for the game.
1st period
No goals, but lots of end-to-end action and solid goaltending. With the Rangers on a power play late (4:11 left), Alex Auld made a nice save on a deflected shot off the stick of Michael Rozsival. Vancouver outshot the Rangers 17-12 in the period and they were 0-for-3 on the power play while New York was 0-for-2.
2nd period
Ed Jovanovski was able to take full advantage of the abolition of the two-line pass by finding Todd Bertuzzi past the blue line in the Ranger zone. Bertuzzi, who had just come off of denying in the media that he wanted to be traded, beat Henrik Lundqvist glove side on a very quick play.
»» 1, VANCOUVER, Todd Bertuzzi 9 (Ed Jovanovski, Mattias Ohlund) 1:01
»» CANUCKS 1, RANGERS 0
Tom Poti's shot from behind the right circle was stopped by Auld, but Petr Prucha was right there for the rebound, stuffing it top corner, glove side. Sadly, there was only one second left in Sami Salo's tripping penalty.
»» 2, NEW YORK, powerplay, Petr Prucha 14 (Tom Poti, Martin Straka) 8:28
»» RANGERS 1, CANUCKS 1
With about 3:50 left in the period, the Canucks were moving to the New York zone from center, and Bertuzzi had the puck. Ryan Hollweg was draped onto him, and Bertuzzi just sort of shoved him onto the ice with one arm. Right after that, Hollweg made a run at Naslund. Bryan Allen and Bertuzzi came in to answer the bell, but it was Bertuzzi who came in and rained right hands on Hollweg. Though the response of team toughness was good to see, it was Todd Bertuzzi doing this, which may have been part of the reason that he got two for instigating, five for fighting, and ten for misconduct, putting him out of the game until the last 13 minutes or so of the game. Shots were eight apiece in the period (Canucks 25-20 overall). Vancouver was 0-for-2 on the power play in the period (0-for-5 overall) while the Rangers were 1-for-2 (1-for-4).
3rd period
After taking a pass from his brother, Daniel Sedin circled from behind the net to the right faceoff dot before uncorking a wrister that got past Lundqvist top corner, short side.
»» 3, VANCOUVER, Daniel Sedin 9 (Henrik Sedin, Ohlund) 6:35
»» CANUCKS 2, RANGERS 1
Prucha blasted a big slapshot from just past the right hash to beat Auld cleanly on the far side.
»» 4, NEW YORK, Prucha 15 (Michael Nylander, Jason Ward) 7:41
»» RANGERS 2, CANUCKS 2
Ryan Kesler and Richard Park rushed down the left side of the ice, and Park got a shot onto Lundqvist, who stopped it. As Michael Nylander tried to clear the rebound away, Matt Cooke took the puck off his stick and put it past Lundqvist for what ended up being the winner. This was against the run of play since the Rangers had been piling on their scoring chances but never getting through on Auld.
»» 5, VANCOUVER, Matt Cooke 4 (unassisted) 15:29
»» CANUCKS 3, RANGERS 2
Auld made a final save off Nylander in the final five seconds. The Rangers piled on with their shots, outshooting the Canucks 16-6 in the period (36-31 overall). The Rangers had no penalties called on them in the period. Vancouver finished 0-for-5 on the power play. The Rangers were 0-for-1 in the final period on the power play, ending 1-for-5.
Three stars -- (1) New York's Petr Prucha, (2) Ohlund, (3) Auld
[the TV chose D Sedin, Prucha, Cooke]
skater, goals-assists-points
Ohlund 0-2-2
Bertuzzi 1-0-1
Cooke 1-0-1
D Sedin 1-0-1
Jovanovski 0-1-1
H Sedin 0-1-1
Matt Cooke made his presence known right away with a hit in the first minute of the game, and he showed up in the right place at the right time, as he has a knack of doing, and scored the winner. His speed brings the total speed back to the Park/Kesler/Cooke line, and the Canucks need to get their third and fourth lines onto the scoreboard to take a little of the burden off the top lines. They can't always depend on scoring from the defensemen either, though it's nice to have.
The Canucks were 32-for-61 (52%) in the faceoff circle. Brendan Morrison was 7-for-17, Trevor Linden was 7-for-12, Ryan Kesler was 7-for-13, and Henrik Sedin was 9-for-15.
Daniel Sedin, Matt Cooke, and Todd Bertuzzi led the team with four shots apiece. Cooke delivered four hits. Ed Jovanovski blocked three shots. Mattias Ohlund was an incredible plus-3. Plus-1 Canucks included Nolan Baumgartner, Sami Salo, Richard Park, Kesler, Cooke, Henrik Sedin, Jarkko Ruutu, Bertuzzi, and Anson Carter. Minus-1 skaters were Steve McCarthy and Lee Goren. All other Canuck skaters were even.
The Canucks are now 19-9-2 (1-1 in shootouts, one overtime loss), good for 40 points in the standings, moving them into a first-place tie with Calgary for the Northwest Division lead with a game in hand. They are now 6-8-2 on the road to go with their sparkling 13-1 home record.
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