Friday, February 10, 2006
GAME 58: MIGHTY DUCKS 3, CANUCKS 1
Mighty Ducks 3, Canucks 1
[posted in full Fri 7 Jul ~12:43a]
The Canucks ran out of gas on the seventh and final game of their road trip four nights before. They came home two nights earlier and beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-4 in a game they should have won anyway. In this game, it was the pesky Anaheim Mighty Ducks (who next year will remove Mighty from their name), who have former Canuck GM Brian Burke running the show. With last year's Manitoba Moose coach Randy Carlyle as the bench boss, the Ducks have a lot of Canuck ties. Some probably had more motivation than others in this game. How would it go?
1st period
Carlyle brought one of his Manitoba Moose players with him to Anaheim, and it paid dividends as Joe DiPenta flicked a shot from the right point that went off the stick of a Canuck in front and got inside the far post on Alex Auld.
»» 1, ANAHEIM, Joe DiPenta 2 (Andy McDonald) 5:41
»» MIGHTY DUCKS 1, CANUCKS 0
On a possession that went end to end quickly, Keith Carney fed a long pass to Teemu Selanne, who took it across the blueline on the right side and waited for Andy McDonald to fill the high slot before getting the puck to him. McDonald put it through Auld on the short side.
»» 2, ANAHEIM, McDonald 19 (Teemu Selanne, Keith Carney) 11:00
»» MIGHTY DUCKS 2, CANUCKS 0
The dying seconds were ticking away on an Anaheim power play. Todd Marchant didn't put up a shot from close range on the right side and centered to Dustin Penner, who was stopped. The puck found its way to Joffrey Lupul in the left-wing corner, who passed to Ruslan Salei at the point before taking it back and walking in from behind the left hash, where he flung a shot toward the net and it went in with one second left to go in Jarkko Ruutu's interference penalty. Auld was pulled from the Vancouver net and Maxime Ouellet was put in.
»» 3, ANAHEIM, powerplay, Joffrey Lupul 19 (Ruslan Salei, Todd Marchant) 17:16
»» MIGHTY DUCKS 3, CANUCKS 0
Morrison rushed across the blueline on the right side and dropped it back for Markus Naslund, who snapped it from the back of the right circle to beat Ilya Bryzgalov on the glove side.
»» 4, VANCOUVER, Markus Naslund 26 (Brendan Morrison, Jarkko Ruutu) 19:04
»» MIGHTY DUCKS 3, CANUCKS 1
Vancouver was outshot 13-8 in the period. The Canucks were 0-for-1 on the power play while Anaheim was 1-for-2.
2nd period
With 6:34 left to go in the period, the Canucks were getting out of their own end and a pass went to Daniel Sedin along the boards on the right side, where he collected the pass and got down a bit before Vitaly Vishnevski barreled him into the boards. With 5:38 left in the period, Selanne took a long nice pass that got him behind the Vancouver defense and all alone for a breakaway chance on Ouellet, but the little-used backup goalie made a nice stop with the right pad to give the home fans at least something to cheer about. Right on to the other end, Richard Park put a shot on the net that was stopped high by Bryzgalov, but that led to action on the other end, as McDonald was all alone with Bieksa and put a shot on Ouellet that was stopped. Anaheim outshot the Canucks again, this time 10-6 (23-14 overall). They were 0-for-2 on the power play (1-for-4) while Vancouver was 0-for-2 (0-for-3).
3rd period
With just under eight minutes left in the game, Vancouver changed lines and only Anson Carter was on behind the Anaheim net as a puck went off of Bryzgalov's stick and got loose in front of the net, but it wasn't cashed in. The rest of the Canuck line came onto the ice and Carter passed to Morrison skating down the slot, but Morrison's shot was stopped and covered by Bryzgalov. With 2:15 to go, Matt Cooke drilled Keith Carney behind the Anaheim net. Vancouver outshot Anaheim 14-7 in the final period, but they finished behind 30-28 in that department. The Canucks were 0-for-2 on the power play (0-for-5 total) while Anaheim didn't draw a penalty in the final frame and finished 1-for-4. Auld stopped 10 of 13 before being pulled. Ouellet stopped all 17 shots he faced.
Three stars -- (1) Anaheim's Andy McDonald, (2) Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer, (3) Anaheim's Teemu Selanne
skater, goals-assists-points
Naslund 1-0-1
Morrison 0-1-1
Ruutu 0-1-1
Sure, it was frustrating enough for the Canucks to fall behind 3-0 in the first period. It was even more frustrating to see that late goal in the first period not turn into something more to start the second period. Worse yet is that after that first goal, Anaheim was able to sit on a 3-1 lead for the rest of the game.
The Canucks were 24-for-59 (41%) in the faceoff circle. Brendan Morrison was 5-for-11. Trevor Linden was 3-for-6. Ryan Kesler was a nice 11-for-18. Henrik Sedin was an icky 4-for-17. Todd Bertuzzi was 1-for-4. Markus Naslund led the team with seven shots. Mattias Ohlund and Bryan Allen had four shots apiece. Ohlund delivered five hits to lead the Canucks. Steve McCarthy and Jarkko Ruutu dished out three hits apiece.
Plus-skating Canucks were Allen, Sami Salo, and Ruutu at plus-1. Daniel Sedin, Kevin Bieksa, McCarthy, Henrik Sedin, Bertuzzi, and Anson Carter were minus-1. Ohlund was the lone minus-2. All other Canuck skaters were even.
At the end of the night, Vancouver dropped back into third place as Colorado leapfrogged them in the standings for the first time in quite a long time. The record of 32-20-6 (2-3 shootout, two overtime losses) and 69 points leaves them a point back of Colorado and four points back of Northwest Division-leading Calgary. They also only lead the Edmonton Oilers by two points.
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