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Markstrom snaps no-shutout streak, Horvat injured, 4 more World Jr invites
December 6, 2017, 2:47 PM ET [405 Comments]
Carol Schram
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Tuesday December 5 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Carolina Hurricanes 0

What a great way for the Jacob Markstrom story to unfold. One game after chatter about his no-shutout streak reached fever pitch, Markstrom put it to bed with a 30-save effort as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Carolina Hurricanes for their third-straight win.

Here are your highlights:



In many ways, Tuesday's game was the Upside-Down of Saturday's win over Toronto. Instead of the fever pitch of emotion that accompanied Daniel's 1,000-point ceremony and Derek Dorsett's appearance, the energy in the building was pretty flat. Instead of the sold-out crowd, there were plenty of empty seats—though many of the seats did fill up and the announced attendance of 17,860 was actually a little above the Canucks' average of 17,805 this year.

And instead of starting strong and hanging on, the Canucks came out sluggish and got better as the game went on. Fittingly for Markstrom, whose Achilles' heel is those bad early goals he's prone to surrender, he set the tone for the game when he stopped all 12 shots he faced in the first period while the Canucks managed just three at the other end on Scott Darling.

Whether they became frustrated or just got sleepy as they adjusted to the time change on their first game out West, the Hurricanes eased off in the middle frame—or the Canucks got stronger.

Cue Derrick Pouliot, who kicked off his first career three-point night with a gorgeous goal.




Pouliot's not just slick with the puck, he's also ultra-clutch!




Full credit to Jim Benning for plucking Pouliot out of Pittsburgh, and to Travis Green for how effectively he's brought him along so far. Pouliot now leads all Canucks defensemen with 10 points in 25 games. If he stays healthy, he should have no trouble eclipsing Troy Stecher's team-leading 24 points from last season.

The Canucks power play went 1-for-2 on the night thanks to Thomas Vanek's deft deflection of a Sam Gagner shot before the second period was out. Vanek has now climbed to third in team scoring with 18 points despite ranking 12th in ice time among forwards at just 13:15 a game. He's also a minus-eight.




I've enjoyed watching how engaged he is. The big "you're the man" point at Gagner after Tuesday's goal, all his animated conversations on the bench. He's not just mailing it in, collecting his paycheque.




With the way he's being deployed, it's not like he's even really taking ice time from kids. Now Boeser, Jake and Goldy are all here—and Goldy showed some good hockey sense when he converted his own rebound for his first as a Canuck this year when he scored the insurance goal in the third period.




That's Goldobin's second point in three games since his call-up. He's also an impressive plus-three so far. He can be a little quiet until he suddenly does something spectacular, but there are no glaring defensive issues in his game.

Down by three, Carolina coach Bill Peters elected not to pull his goalie on Tuesday night, leaving us all to nervously count down the final minutes and seconds until Markstrom finally earned that first career shutout. And just in time!




Watching this moment from above, I had never seen Alex Edler so excited.




As for Markstrom, I think he's just glad it's over. He even wore his mask when he came out to take his twirl around the ice as the game's first star.

With the win, the Canucks climbed into third place in the Pacific Division—but a dark cloud has rolled in. Bo Horvat left Tuesday's game midway through the third period after an awkward collision along the boards.

Travis Green characterized the injury as 'small' after the game, but here's today's update:




With Brandon Sutter still sidelined, it'll be a blow if Horvat is out for any period of time—he has assumed a great deal of Sutter's faceoff and penalty-killing work along with his regular duties. We'll just have to wait for the results of the MRI.

To wrap up, today, something to think about—and the World Junior update:

To my great surprise, there's buzz this week that we might actually see two-time KHL defenseman-of-the-month Nikita Tryamkin back in Canucks colours at some point in the future...




The Canucks retain Tryamkin's North American rights until he's 27, which takes us all the way to 2022.

And...today's World Junior announcements went as well as could be expected for Vancouver.

Though he's currently sidelined day-to-day with a knee injury, Elias Pettersson was named to the preliminary roster for Team Sweden. Then, Vancouver went three-for-three when Michael DiPietro, Jonah Gadjovich and Kole Lind all got invites from Team Canada.




Rosters will be pared down as the tournament draws closer but this week's announcements have been a best-case scenario. Great stuff!
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