Monday, March 13, 2006
GAME 66: STARS 4, CANUCKS 2
Stars 4, Canucks 2
[initial partial post]
This game in Dallas finished off a home-and-home series with the Stars. The Canucks hoped to get something going on the road after losing all three games of a homestand and picking up a mere one of a possible six points. They'd have to seriously break trends to do that, though. The Canuck power play came in 4 for their last 59 chances. The Canucks had gone six games without scoring a first-period goal. Though the Canucks managed to beat him once this year, Dallas goalie Marty Turco came in with a career 27-7-1 record against Canadian teams. Also, Vancouver needed to be more than just a one-line team. In so many years past, it was the Naslund/Morrison/Bertuzzi line that was doing all the heavy lifting, but now it's the Sedin twins and Anson Carter doing everything. They need secondary scoring in the worst way.
Hockey fans in the states would see this game on OLN, the Canucks' only appearance on the network this season. How would they do?
1st period
none
2nd period
»» 1, DALLAS, powerplay, Jussi Jokinen 15 (Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov) 0:59
»» 2, DALLAS, Jere Lehtinen 29 (Jokinen, Modano) 5:03
»» 3, VANCOUVER, Anson Carter 26 (Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin) 11:10
»» 4, VANCOUVER, powerplay, D Sedin 17 (Carter, H Sedin) 13:24
3rd period
»» 5, DALLAS, Modano 24 (Zubov) 3:08
»» 6, DALLAS, powerplay, Jason Arnott 25 (Jokinen, Zubov) 14:10
Three stars -- (1) Dallas' Mike Modano, (2) Dallas' Jussi Jokinen, (3) Dallas' Sergei Zubov
[the Rogers SportsNet telecast chose Modano, Zubov, and Daniel Sedin as 1-2-3]
skater, goals-assists-points
Carter 1-1-2
D Sedin 1-1-2
H Sedin 0-2-2
The loss dropped the Canucks to 35-25-6 (3-3 shootouts, three overtime losses), good for 76 points and third place in the Northwest Division. Calgary got a regulation home win against Colorado, so those teams flip-flopped atop the division. The Canucks are five points behind Calgary and four back of Colorado. Calgary has two games in hand on Vancouver, and the Canucks have a game in hand on Colorado. Edmonton is two back of Vancouver. The Canucks are seventh in the West and two points up on Brian Burke's eighth-place Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Basically, the Canucks just have to take care of themselves, and things will take care of themselves. They need to stop taking dumb penalties, they need to clean up their play in the defensive end, they need to not let opposing players skate from the bench to the net untouched, they need to put more pucks on the net, they need to play with purpose, etc., etc., etc.
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