Tuesday March 26 - Anaheim Ducks 5 - Vancouver Canucks 4
A feisty effort, a near-comeback and a regulation loss created a virtually perfect end result for the draft lottery-bound Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
After his 12-hit magnum opus against Columbus on Sunday, Luke Schenn came out banging again on Tuesday, picking up the first of his seven hits for the night just 33 seconds into the game. All told, the Canucks doubled the Ducks 36-18 in the hits department. Four of those came from Josh Teves, who skated 13:40 in his NHL debut. He finished with a minus-one, took a third-period hooking penalty on Troy Terry and added one takeaway and one block to his stat line. Not bad at all.
#Canucks Travis Green on Teves' NHL debut: "I was happy with his game. He played a simple game, looked comfortable. Got a little unlucky on the one play there (Anaheim's first goal)."
— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) March 27, 2019
With Ryan Kesler and Ryan Getzlaf out of the lineup for Anaheim, the Ducks' roster had a decidedly youthful vibe. Team Canada's 2018 World Juniors hero Sam Steel stole the show with his first career hat trick in his 18th NHL game.
At 21 years, 51 days old, Sam Steel becomes the youngest player in #LetsGoDucks history to record a hat trick. Bobby Ryan held the record with a hat trick at 21 years, 297 days old (01/08/2009). pic.twitter.com/ESXygjI2EZ
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 27, 2019
Fellow rookie Kiefer Sherwood added a goal and an assist, and Troy Terry had one helper, while Max Jones was held off the scoresheet. On the blue line, 25-year-old Andy Welinski skated 17:37, and was on the receiving end of this juicy bump from Jake Virtanen.
Jake Virtanen finishes his check on Andy Welinski at the point. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/q3XFgoUuTH
— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) March 27, 2019
Virtanen also got the Canucks on the scoreboard midway through the first period, with his 15th goal of the year, banked in off an Anaheim defenseman in front of John Gibson.
Alex Edler added his ninth of the year to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead after one period, tying a team record.
With his goal with 1:00 left in the 1st period, Alex Edler ties Mattias Ohlund for the most goals by a d-man in @Canucks history. The club record for goals by a blue-liner is 93.
— Joey Kenward (@kenwardskorner) March 27, 2019
Ohlund's 93 goals came in 770 games with Vancouver; Edler is just behind that pace, at 809. If he can score again and break the record sometime in the last five games of the season, he'll also hit double-digits in goals for the first time since 2011-12.
Last time the Canucks played the Ducks in Vancouver a month ago, they cruised to an easy 4-0 shutout win. The team may have been guilty of thinking their opponent would put up a similarly weak fight on Tuesday, because Vancouver got sloppy after the first period. After Steel picked up his second goal of the game, the Ducks took the lead on his hat-trick penalty-shot tally after Markus Granlund was whistled for using a piece of a broken stick to impede the play.
Granlund shovels the broken stick into the way of the puck and the Ducks are awarded a penalty shot. pic.twitter.com/drBZZ4USlU
— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) March 27, 2019
Though the Canucks outshot the Ducks 16-4 in the third period, giving them a 32-24 edge in the game, Anaheim went up 5-2 before Vancouver began its comeback with goals from Josh Leivo and Tanner Pearson in the last seven minutes. Keifer Sherwood's goal turned out to be the winner, and came off a weird-and-uncharacteristic giveaway in the slot by Elias Pettersson.
During warmups, @KSherwood44 gave a puck away to a young fan.
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) March 27, 2019
In the third period, Vancouver gave up the puck to him - and he didn't miss!
Good karma is real, friends.#LetsGoDucks | #ANAvsVAN pic.twitter.com/kSRby84Gox
Petey had a quiet night—pointless, and a minus-two. But he did get the better of Sam Steel in the corner.
Pettersson lays out Sam Steel with the reverse hit#Canucks pic.twitter.com/U9rQ2gzGal
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) March 27, 2019
It's nice to see Leivo and Pearson continue to make their case to stick around as scoring wingers next season. Leivo's now up to 10-8-18 in 44 games in a Vancouver uniform and Pearson is 5-2-7 in 14 games.
All told, it was a messy game, and the Canucks' losing streak has now stretched to three games. But it was a pretty entertaining night at the old barn in the midst of this seemingly endless homestand. And while the Ducks have now matched the Canucks with 74 points, Vancouver is still officially higher in the standings for now. The Ducks hold the edge in the tiebreaker with one extra regulation/overtime win, but the Canucks still hold a game in hand.
We won't have the Sedins' retirement tour to keep us engaged as the boys play out the string this year, but we should be able to activate Hughes-watch to DEFCON 1.
Travis Green is satisfying his desire to get the Canucks' prized rookie into a full practice at Rogers Arena on Wednesday, which means Hughes is probably set to make his NHL debut against Los Angeles on Thursday.
No Brisebois or Motte at #Canucks practice. Hutton and Hughes both taking part again. pic.twitter.com/H0gI7MYUFH
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) March 27, 2019
Hughes has stepped into Josh Teves' spot in the defense rotation, playing with the destroyer Luke Schenn. He's also getting a look on the second power-play unit.
Quinn joins a pair of other young studs on the cover of the latest edition of The Hockey News, which landed in my mailbox on Tuesday.
Future Watch 2019 is available now! Our annual prospect edition features our Top 100, Top 10s and grades for every team, and Sneak Peeks at the next three drafts. Also, stories on Makar, Glass, Zadina, the Rangers and much more. Get it on newsstands or https://t.co/DsQ0YCbnYu pic.twitter.com/UXmOQWTyFO
— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) March 27, 2019