Monday, February 06, 2006
GAME 56: CANUCKS 7, BLUE JACKETS 4
Canucks 7, Blue Jackets 4
[posted in full 6 Jul ~12:51a]
The seventh game of the Canucks' season-long seven-game road trip was a loss in Edmonton, against whom the Canucks are now winless in five tries. After they sputtered and ran out of gas, how would the home cookin' do?
1st period
After an Anson Carter centering pass from the right wing leaked through the slot and into the corner, it was tapped behind the net by Henrik Sedin, where it got to Daniel Sedin, who leaked it into the low slot for Carter again, who finished stick side over a sprawling Marc Denis. Daniel Sedin got his 200th NHL point on the play, and brother Henrik was tied for the Canucks' scoring lead with 55 points.
»» 1, VANCOUVER, Anson Carter 21 (Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin) 2:29
»» CANUCKS 1, BLUE JACKETS 0
Tyler Bouck on the left side inside the blueline centered to the high slot for Bryan Allen, whose shot was blocked, but it banked out to Bouck on the left side near the goal line this time. Bouck centered down low for Josh Green, who put it past the glove side on Denis.
»» 2, VANCOUVER, Josh Green 4 (Tyler Bouck, Bryan Allen) 3:42
»» CANUCKS 2, BLUE JACKETS 0
Brendan Morrison hooked Nikolai Zherdev right after the Green goal. Todd Bertuzzi nearly had a wraparound goal at the 7:20 mark, but it was ruled that he took the net off with his left shoulder. Later he cashed in as he took a pass from Morrison on the left side and rumbled down the slot, taking Morrison's pass off his skate and powering it past Denis on the glove side. Markus Naslund jumped back ahead of Henrik Sedin for the team scoring lead.
»» 3, VANCOUVER, powerplay, Todd Bertuzzi 19 (Brendan Morrison, Markus Naslund) 12:52
»» CANUCKS 3, BLUE JACKETS 0
Mattias Ohlund took the puck from his own end, carried it across center, then skated across the blueline before unloading and beating Denis to the glove side with a long slapshot.
»» 4, VANCOUVER, powerplay, Mattias Ohlund 9 (Alex Auld) 16:18
»» CANUCKS 4, BLUE JACKETS 0
The Canucks outshot Columbus 10-6 in the period. The Blue Jackets were 0-for-2 on the power play while the Canucks were 2-for-3.
2nd period
Denis was pulled from the Columbus net in favor of Pascal Leclaire. After a giveaway by Kevin Bieksa, Adam Foote in the high slot found Rick Nash parked in the low slot and hit him with a pass, and Nash stuck it through on the stick side on Alex Auld.
»» 5, COLUMBUS, Rick Nash 15 (Adam Foote) 8:57
»» CANUCKS 4, BLUE JACKETS 1
Later in the period, the Canucks were caught out of position and Nash was stopped by Auld, but Nash was tripped up on the play and awarded a penalty shot. Auld got the right pad on the penalty shot by Nash. The Canucks outshot the Blue Jackets 16-14 (26-20 total). Columbus was 0-for-1 on the power play in the period (0-for-3 overall) while Vancouver was 0-for-3 (2-for-6).
3rd period
Leclaire was pulled from the net and Denis was put back in the game. David Vyborny skated near the goal line on the left side and passed to Zherdev near Auld's stick side and it appeared the puck knuckled and fluttered past Auld.
»» 6, COLUMBUS, powerplay, Nikolai Zherdev 18 (David Vyborny, Duvie Westcott) 1:47
»» CANUCKS 4, BLUE JACKETS 2
Just thirty seconds later, Rostislav Klesla dodged Anson Carter's defense and wristed a hard one from the left faceoff dot past Auld on the glove side.
»» 7, COLUMBUS, Rostislav Klesla 4 (Jaroslav Balastik, Vyborny) 2:17
»» CANUCKS 4, BLUE JACKETS 3
Off a faceoff inside the blueline, Carter got a hold of the puck and took it to the goal line on the right side and spotted Daniel Sedin skating to the low slot, who snapped it through the stick side.
»» 8, VANCOUVER, powerplay, D Sedin 15 (Carter, H Sedin) 4:32
»» CANUCKS 5, BLUE JACKETS 3
Morrison fed the outlet pass to Bertuzzi on the left side across the blueline, who fed backward to Kevin Bieksa, who fed Naslund skating in front of him. Naslund made good on the chance.
»» 9, VANCOUVER, powerplay, Naslund 25 (Kevin Bieksa, Bertuzzi) 7:16
»» CANUCKS 6, BLUE JACKETS 3
Mattias Ohlund fed Bieksa at the right point for a slapshot which was blocked out in front. The puck bounced to Trevor Linden at the left hash, who wristed it through. Denis didn't go post to post quickly enough to cover his stick side.
»» 10, VANCOUVER, powerplay, Trevor Linden 6 (Bieksa, Ohlund) 15:32
»» CANUCKS 7, BLUE JACKETS 3
Vyborny along the goal line on the right side centered to Nash down low as Columbus made good on the 5-on-3.
»» 11, COLUMBUS, powerplay, Nash 16 (Vyborny, Klesla) 18:46
»» CANUCKS 7, BLUE JACKETS 4
The Canucks were outshot 13-12 in the period but held a 38-33 advantage for the game. Columbus was 2-for-6 on the power play in the period (2-for-9 total) while Vancouver was 3-for-5 (5-for-11). Auld stopped 29 shots.
Three stars -- (1) Bertuzzi, (2) D Sedin, (3) Columbus' Rick Nash
skater, goals-assists-points
Bertuzzi 1-1-2
Carter 1-1-2
Naslund 1-1-2
Ohlund 1-1-2
D Sedin 1-1-2
Bieksa 0-2-2
H Sedin 0-2-2
Allen 0-1-1
Auld 0-1-1 (goalie)
Bouck 0-1-1
Green 1-0-1
Linden 1-0-1
Morrison 0-1-1
It isn't generally good to pile up a 4-0 lead afer 20 minutes and nearly blow it, but the Canucks came away with the two points and beat a team they should have beat, so that's something positive.
In the faceoff circle, the Canucks were 29-for-74 (39%). Brendan Morrison was 6-for-14, Trevor Linden was 1-for-4, Ryan Kesler was a brutal 3-for-16, Henrik Sedin was a nice 15-for-25, Josh Green was 1-for-4, and Todd Bertuzzi was 2-for-8. Daniel Sedin led the team in shots with seven. Mattias Ohlund was second in shots with six. No other Canuck had more than three shots, though the team had 38 altogether. Markus Naslund led the team in takeaways with two. Morrison, Todd Bertuzzi, and Anson Carter gave away the puck twice apiece. Ohlund blocked three shots.
Plus-skating Canucks included Sami Salo, Linden, Tyler Bouck, Steve McCarthy, and Josh Green, all at plus-1. Minus-skating Canucks included Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, and Carter at minus-1 and Ohlund at minus-2. All other Canuck skaters were even.
The win puts Vancouver at 32-19-5 (2-3 shootout, two overtime losses), good for 69 points and first place in the Northwest Division, with wins being the tiebreaker. Calgary won in San Jose, and though they have a game in hand, they have one less win than Vancouver. The Canucks lead the third-place Oilers by only two points and lead fourth-place Colorado by five.
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