Saturday, December 31, 2005
GAME 38: WILD 4, CANUCKS 3
Wild 4, Canucks 3
[posted in full Mon ~1:33a]
Another divisional game, another divisional loss for the Canucks. It's dire. Very, very dire. They're in a precarious place right now since the Northwest Division is so tightly packed. The division lead puts you in the third slot in the west, sure, but if you're much further out of it than that, you can drop all the way down to seventh in a hurry. This to me says that the teams in the Northwest are just beating up on each other and keeping points from one another to the point where whoever's second is a long cry from third in the conference, and the division winner definitely doesn't have the third-most points in the conference, just the division lead.
Knowing that you can't start Alex Auld every game, Marc Crawford ran backup goalie Maxime Ouellet out there for what was the first game of a road trip, and a divisional game to boot. A Vancouver-area columnist on the pregame show was criticizing this move since there were cupcake opponents like Saint Louis and Chicago left on the road trip to keep Ouellet sharp, and he was proven to be somewhat correct after this game. However, the Canucks had sent Ouellet down to Manitoba for one start (where he apparently did well) to warm him up before sending him across the border for this game. I'll just say his first 20 minutes were solid. They don't just play 20 minutes in a hockey game though.
1st period
Nearly six minutes into the period, Daniel Sedin was robbed by the right pad of Minnesota goalie Manny Fernandez. Later in the period, Mikko Koivu of the Wild was stopped by the blocker of Maxime Ouellet. The Wild killed off two penalties in close succession, which one might expect from their having the NHL's best penalty-kill unit. Coming into the game, they had killed off 35 of their last 37 penalties. The Canucks also failed to capitalize on 31 seconds of two-man advantage time after Pascal Dupuis was called for a trip that wasn't actually a trip since Markus Naslund just blew a tire. With just over three minutes left in the period, Rick Rypien had a scoring chance stopped by Fernandez on a rush. Ouellet made a solid kick save on Wes Walz in close before the end of the period. Vancouver outshot Minnesota 12-10 in the period, and Ouellet looked fairly solid in net. The Canucks were 0-for-2 on the power play and Minnesota was 0-for-1.
2nd period
As good as Ouellet was in the first period, he was shaky in the second period. Early on, he hot-potatoed a puck. Todd Bertuzzi was stripped of the puck, and Todd White broke away and shot off the crossbar. Just past six minutes into the period, Koivu beat Ouellet with a shot that went off the post, but Ouellet was lucky to cover it up. After an initial Richard Park hard wrister from the high slot was stopped by a Fernandez kick save, Matt Cooke swooped in and backhanded the rebound through from just inside the right faceoff dot.
»» 1, VANCOUVER, Matt Cooke 6 (Richard Park) 6:19
»» CANUCKS 1, WILD 0
Guess what disturbing trend is going to hold up now? The Canuck lead lasted for all of 21 seconds as Todd White blasted a slapshot from the high slot to beat Ouellet stick side.
»» 2, MINNESOTA, Todd White 10 (Brian Rolston, Kyle Wanvig) 6:40
»» WILD 1, CANUCKS 1
It didn't stop there. Just 34 seconds after the Canucks blew the lead, they got behind. A Marian Gaborik shot from behind the right hash was stopped by Ouellet, but the puck ricocheted high into the air, and Ouellet couldn't find it. The puck eventually appeared in the crease, and Wes Walz took out the trash from in front.
»» 3, MINNESOTA, Wes Walz 5 (unassisted) 7:14
»» WILD 2, CANUCKS 1
The Canucks killed off a Kevin Bieksa interference penalty and were at full strength for 21 seconds before Ryan Kesler went to the box for a high-stick. In addition, the Canuck bench got whistled for "abuse of officials" (that's what it says on the scoresheet), putting them two men down. It didn't take long (19 seconds) for Kurtis Foster to blast a slapshot from beside the high slot that beat Ouellet stick side, far post.
»» 4, MINNESOTA, powerplay, Kurtis Foster 6 (Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Rolston) 10:56
»» WILD 3, CANUCKS 1
With 7:21 left in the period, a long slapshot off the stick of Filip Kuba hit Bryan Allen in the forehand, drawing profuse bleeding and forcing him to the locker room. Later, Kyle Wanvig was stopped on a 2-on-1 with Brian Rolston. After that, Ouellet had yet another shot go off the crossbar. Derek Boogaard tried making a run at Bieksa, but instead took one of his teammates out of the play instead. The weird result of the play was that Boogaard was called for charging. On the resulting power play, Sami Salo blasted a slapshot straight down the middle that deflected off a Minnesota defender's stick to beat Fernandez top shelf. Salo had gone 16 games without scoring a goal.
»» 5, VANCOUVER, powerplay, Sami Salo 7 (Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi) 19:47
»» WILD 3, CANUCKS 2
Vancouver was badly outshot 16-7 in the period (and 26-19 for the game). The Canucks were 1-for-2 (1-for-4 cumulatively) on the power play while Minnesota was 1-for-3 (1-for-4).
3rd period
After having taken the puck to the forehead in the second period, a stitched-up Allen had come back to help the Canuck defenseman's plight with Ed Jovanovski being a scratch. The speed line of Matt Cooke/Brendan Morrison/Richard Park had a good early shift. On the same shift where Trevor Linden lost a stick, the Canuck penalty kill and Ouellet held tough on a couple of really good scoring chances before Randy Robitaille unleashed a slapshot from the back of the left circle that beat Ouellet on the glove side. Out came Rypien from the box, as he'd been in for holding.
»» 6, MINNESOTA, powerplay, Randy Robitaille 8 (Foster, Bouchard) 8:41
»» WILD 4, CANUCKS 2
Markus Naslund centered from the back of the right circle near the right-wing boards to the low slot, where Allen deflected the puck past Fernandez just inside the far post.
»» 7, VANCOUVER, powerplay, Bryan Allen 4 (Naslund, Bertuzzi) 10:30
»» WILD 4, CANUCKS 3
Daniel Sedin from behind the net centered to brother Henrik Sedin, who tipped the deflection barely wide in front of Fernandez. As the Canucks were trying to even up the score, Naslund was whistled for grabbing Bouchard with 3:29 left in the game, making a great deal of the needed energy for finding the tying goal instead being sucked by the penalty kill. Vancouver was outshot 11-10 in the final period (37-29 total) and was 1-for-1 on the power play (2-for-5). Minnesota was 1-for-3 on the power play (2-for-7). Ouellet stopped 33.
Three stars -- (1) Minnesota's Kurtis Foster, (2) Minnesota's Brian Rolston, (3) Minnesota's Marc Chouinard
skater, goals-assists-points
Bertuzzi 0-2-2
Naslund 0-2-2
Allen 1-0-1
Cooke 1-0-1
Salo 1-0-1
Park 0-1-1
Vancouver's last six losses have all been by one goal. Radio color man Tom Larscheid after the game said something not necessarily to the effect of that being the type of thing that happens to bad teams, but they sure don't happen to elite teams. Elite teams don't kick away a chance to bury the rest of their division either like the Canucks had early on in the campaign.
The Canucks were 25-for-57 (44%) in the faceoff circle. Brendan Morrison was 9-for-13, Rick Rypien was 3-for-5, Trevor Linden was 1-for-5, Henrik Sedin was 4-for-18 (ouch), and Todd Bertuzzi was 7-for-13. Sami Salo led the team in shots with five. Daniel Sedin was close behind with four. Matt Cooke led the team with five hits, Mattias Ohlund dished out four, and Mattias Ohlund three.
There were no plus-skating Canucks. Vancouver's only even-strength goal was the first one (Cooke), and the same line was left on the ice until Todd White tied the game for Minnesota 21 seconds later. So, the only plus-minus numbers are from the second Minnesota goal. Those guys (minus-1s) were Ohlund, Markus Naslund, Kevin Bieksa, Ruutu, and Bertuzzi. All other Canuck skaters were even.
The Canucks are now 21-12-5 (1-3 shootout, two overtime losses) and are still stuck at 47 points, but now do not lead the Northwest Division and are near the back end of playoff spots as of the moment. That'll happen when you have a 5-10-4 record in divisional play. Horrible.
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