Tuesday, February 28, 2006
GAME 60: CANUCKS 2, FLAMES 1
Canucks 2, Flames 1
[posted in full Sun 9 Jul ~1:20a]
The Olympic break had just ended. For the Canucks, it didn't completely pass without incident. The good thing was that Markus Naslund was able to rest his injured hip, though he did miss out on Sweden's gold medal by doing it. For bad things, both Sami Salo and Mattias Ohlund were injured during the Games and weren't available for this game, further depleting the injury-riddled Canuck blue line. In addition, Nolan Baumgartner was out of this game with an ankle injury. Needless to say, Ed Jovanovski has been out for a long time. Thus, the Canucks needed to hold it together with Moose callups Tomas Mojzis and Sven Butenschon holding down two of the six defensive spots. The Canucks needed to hold it together against the Calgary Flames. Vancouver lost the first four meetings against Calgary this season and won the following two. How would the seventh meeting go?
1st period
Just 2:40 into the game, Wade Brookbank and Chris Simon got into a tussle and Simon pummeled Brookbank, which wasn't so good since Brookbank has had concussion problems. Later, Bryan Marchment punched Alexandre Burrows in the face well away from the play. On the ensuing power play, Markus Naslund put a low shot on Miikka Kiprusoff that was nicely stopped. At 7:24 into the period, the Canucks were whistled for a rare double-waveout penalty on a faceoff. The Flames got a power play opportunity as a result, and they made good. Kristian Huselius passed from the right-wing boards and fed Robyn Regehr in the high slot for a goal through traffic.
»» 1, CALGARY, powerplay, Robyn Regehr 5 (Kristian Huselius, Jordan Leopold) 8:53
»» FLAMES 1, CANUCKS 0
After the goal, Shean Donovan threw a punch at Matt Cooke and drew a penalty. On the Vancouver power play, Rhett Warrener and Jarkko Ruutu exchanged fisticuffs as the Canuck power play remained intact. Todd Bertuzzi wiped away the last seven seconds of the power play with an interference penalty. As the Bertuzzi penalty expired, Henrik Sedin overskated the puck in the crease as Kiprusoff had left a wide-open net. With 4:40 left in the period, Auld made a nice save on a close Tony Amonte shot. Just inside three minutes remaining, Trevor Linden mustered some speed and drew a hook from Regehr. Henrik Sedin and Regehr were sent off for roughing after a whistle late in the period. The Flames outshot the Canucks 9-7 in the period. Calgary was 1-for-2 on the power play in the period while Vancouver was 0-for-3.
2nd period
Cooke drew an interference penalty just 46 seconds into the period, and it set the tone. Steve McCarthy then put a puck over the glass, putting the Canucks two men down for 57 seconds. Brendan Morrison won the first faceoff after the second penalty, which was key. Alex Auld made a nice save on a one-timer with 18 ticks left in the Cooke penalty. After Cooke came out of the box, Kristian Huselius hit the post beside Auld. Cooke drilled Daymond Langkow at center ice and Langkow reacted and got the gate for unsportsmanlike conduct, bailing the Canucks out of having to kill off the last 44 seconds of the McCarthy penalty. Just 27 seconds later, Kevin Bieksa coughed up the puck and Tomas Mojzis had no choice but to trip up Stephane Yelle. Luckily, the penalty was killed. Later, Jarome Iginla had Sven Butenschon beat for a breakaway chance but he lost control of the puck. At one time in the period, the Flames led 13-2 on shots as Auld stood on his head in net. Bieksa had a point-blank chance stopped by Kiprusoff. McCarthy was grabbed by Donovan and the Canucks went on the power play with 6:28 left in the period, but made nothing of it. On a quick end-to-end play, McCarthy put the puck down the ice from his own corner and it found Morrison along the left-wing boards in the Calgary zone, where he passed to Naslund moving down the slot, who beat Kiprusoff on the stick side to tie it.
»» 2, VANCOUVER, Markus Naslund 27 (Brendan Morrison, Steve McCarthy) 18:20
»» FLAMES 1, CANUCKS 1
Right after the Naslund goal, the Canucks won the faceoff and moved down the ice quickly as the loose puck moved across the blueline and Daniel Sedin dove to push it to Anson Carter up high, who shot from the right hash and beat Kiprusoff on the glove side to turn the tide of the entire game.
»» 3, VANCOUVER, Anson Carter 22 (Daniel Sedin, Bryan Allen) 18:29
»» CANUCKS 2, FLAMES 1
The Canucks showed some resilience. After being horribly outplayed for the first 18 minutes of the period, they managed two goals in quick succession. Best of all, Vancouver took a 22-2-1 record into the game when leading after two periods of play. Calgary badly outshot the Canucks 15-7 in the period (24-14 overall). The Flames were 0-for-3 (1-for-5) on the power play while Vancouver was 0-for-3 again (0-for-6).
3rd period
With Chris Simon getting a roughing penalty after the second-period horn, the Canucks started off the third period with a power play, but didn't do anything with it as the CKNW McDonald's Power Play jackpot reached $308 (it starts at $98 after the Canucks score a power-play goal). Later, Iginla fired wide on a rebound of a Huselius shot as Auld had to hurry to get back into position. Further along, Tony Amonte had a one-timer stopped. Some time after that, Yelle shot wide after the puck found him in the slot. With 6:39 gone in the period, Ruutu delivered a flying hit, but he drew a charging penalty since he left his feet. McCarthy later (after the penalty) set Ruutu loose with a pass but Ruutu sent the backhand shot wide. Naslund later gave a two-handed slash to Simon but it wasn't called. Andrew Ference knocked one of the Sedins on his back. Kesler tied up Iginla, who was breaking to the net, and a 4-on-3 power play resulted. As the minutes wound down, Naslund was barely stopped on a wraparound attempt by Kiprusoff. Vancouver outshot the Flames 8-7 in the period but were outshot 31-22 in the game. The Flames were 0-for-1 (1-for-6 total) on the power play while the Canucks were 0-for-2 (0-for-8) and were scoreless on their last 23 power plays. Auld stopped 30 shots in the game.
Three stars -- (1) McCarthy, (2) Calgary's Robyn Regehr, (3) Auld
skater, goals-assists-points
Carter 1-0-1
Naslund 1-0-1
Allen 0-1-1
McCarthy 0-1-1
Morrison 0-1-1
D Sedin 0-1-1
Great win. The Canucks got by against a good Calgary Flames team despite having a patchwork defensive corps of Bryan Allen, Kevin Bieksa, Steve McCarthy, Wade Brookbank, Tomas Mojzis, and Sven Butenschon. This win was no small feat.
Vancouver was 28-for-28 (50%) in the faceoff circle. Brendan Morrison was 8-for-13, Trevor Linden was a stellar 8-for-11, Ryan Kesler was 3-for-7, Henrik Sedin was an icky 3-for-12, and Todd Bertuzzi was 6-for-12. Markus Naslund led the Canucks with five shots. Kevin Bieksa was the only other Canuck with three or more shots (he had three). Matt Cooke dished out four hits. Bryan Allen and Kesler delivered three hits apiece. Steve McCarthy led the team with four blocked shots. Bieksa and Tomas Mojzis blocked two shots each.
The Canucks had no skaters on the minus side of the plus-minus ledger in this one. All the plus-skating Canucks were plus-1. Allen, Morrison, Naslund, Daniel Sedin, Cooke, Bieksa, McCarthy, Wade Brookbank, Henrik Sedin, and Anson Carter were all plus-1. All other Canuck skaters were even.
Thanks to possibly their biggest win of the season to date, the Vancouver Canucks are now 34-21-5 (2-3 shootouts, two overtime losses), good for 73 points and a share of the Northwest Division lead with the very Calgary Flames (who have two games in hand) they beat on this night. After losing the first four meetings with the Flames this season, the Canucks have won all three meetings since. Unfortunately, the Minnesota Wild couldn't hold up their end of the bargain, losing in Colorado. Thus, Colorado trails Vancouver and Calgary by only one point. Edmonton is five points back with two games in hand on Vancouver. The Canucks have a mere 22 games left in the season, and thanks to a stacked Northwest Division, the playoffs are by no means a certainty at this point.
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