Saturday, February 04, 2006
GAME 55: OILERS 3, CANUCKS 1
Oilers 3, Canucks 1
[posted in full 5 Jul]
The Vancouver Canucks had somehow righted the ship after starting a seven-game road trip 0-3, then winning the next three. The sixth game of the road trip was arguably the Canucks' biggest win of the season, coming against division-leading Calgary. But this was the final game of the road trip, and it was the night right after the Calgary win. Vancouver came in winless in four tries against Edmonton this season. Could that streak be snapped?
1st period
Chris Pronger unleashed a one-timer from the right point that was deflected through Alex Auld by Ryan Smyth out in front.
»» 1, EDMONTON, powerplay, Ryan Smyth 23 (Chris Pronger, Marc-Andre Bergeron) 11:21
»» OILERS 1, CANUCKS 0
The Canucks were outshot 13-7 in the period and were 0-for-1 on the power play while the Oilers were 1-for-3.
2nd period
Just under five minutes into the period, Auld stopped a Pronger slapshot from the blue line that was tipped out in front. With 10:35 to go, Daniel Sedin and Anson Carter got loose on a 2-on-1 and Carter got past the only man back, who was Igor Ulanov, after which Carter put a shot to the goal that was gloved by Mike Morrison. Later in the period, Jarret Stoll camped out on the left wing and sort of wristed a puck to the net that should have never gotten through, but the sharp-angle shot got through the legs of Auld.
»» 2, EDMONTON, Jarret Stoll 15 (Ales Hemsky, Jaroslav Spacek) 13:03
»» OILERS 2, CANUCKS 0
Against the run of play, Henrik Sedin from the back of the right circle nicely fed Daniel Sedin down low, who deflected the puck off his tape and through. At this point, the D Sedin/H Sedin/Carter line had outscored the Naslund/Morrison/Bertuzzi line by 20 points since the first of December. Henrik's 200th career point occurred on the play as well as the first NHL point for Tomas Mojzis.
»» 3, VANCOUVER, Daniel Sedin 14 (Henrik Sedin, Tomas Mojzis) 16:52
»» OILERS 2, CANUCKS 1
The Canucks were again outshot, this time by a 13-9 margin (26-16 total). Vancouver was 0-for-1 on the power play (0-for-2 total) while Edmonton was 1-for-2 (2-for-4).
3rd period
Auld stopped a small flurry of shots on an Edmonton power play just under four minutes in as one was a Pronger shot and another close one after the rebound. Later, Raffi Torres iced the game from the high slot by shooting through a screen of Todd Harvey and Kevin Bieksa in front of Auld, who wasn't too enthused and argued he was interfered with.
»» 4, EDMONTON, powerplay, Raffi Torres 18 (Shawn Horcoff, Spacek) 8:17
»» OILERS 3, CANUCKS 1
Auld proved worthy one last time by making a nice post-to-post stop on a Stoll blast from the left faceoff dot. Vancouver was badly outshot 14-1 (40-17 total) and was 0-for-2 (0-for-4) on the power play. Edmonton was 1-for-4 (2-for-9). Auld stopped 37 shots.
Three stars -- (1) Edmonton's Jarret Stoll, (2) Edmonton's Chris Pronger, (3) Auld
skater, goals-assists-points
D Sedin 1-0-1
Mojzis 0-1-1
H Sedin 0-1-1
The Canucks couldn't get enough pucks to the net, but worse yet, they couldn't get enough pucks to the net on Mike Morrison. Not Ty Conklin, not Jussi Markkanen. Mike Morrison.
In the faceoff circle, the Canucks were terrible, losing on 42 of 58 tries. Brendan Morrison was a brutal 4-for-18 (22%), Trevor Linden was 0-for-4, Ryan Kesler was 4-for-15 (26%), Henrik Sedin was 4-for-11 (36%), Josh Green was 3-for-7 (42%), and Todd Bertuzzi was 1-for-3. Daniel Sedin led the team in shots with four, Bertuzzi had three, and Anson Carter had two. Other Canucks had scattered singles when it came to shots. Kesler, Kevin Bieksa, Steve McCarthy, and Bertuzzi all dished out a pair of hits apiece. In the same game where he registered his first NHL point, Tomas Mojzis notched three takeaways. On the bad side of the ledger, Henrik Sedin gave away the puck three times, and Markus Naslund gave it away twice. Mattias Ohlund blocked four shots.
Plus-skating Canucks included Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Mojzis, and Carter. Minus-skating Canucks included Ohlund, Kesler, Bieksa, and Jarkko Ruutu. All other Canuck skaters were even.
The loss left the Canucks at 31-19-5 (2-3 shootout, two overtime losses). It's the kind of loss that the Canucks will be kicking themselves about if they get crappy playoff positioning or something. Five losses in five tries against Edmonton? That's just horrendous.
/ Click for main page
