Tuesday November 5 Phoenix Coyotes 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2 (S/O)
The word "highlights" might be a bit of a stretch, but here's a recap of last night's Canucks game against Phoenix:
At first, it looked like Vancouver was going to badly fail its first test of the week against the Pacific Division. The Coyotes opened the scoring at 1:15, on their first shot of the game, when Martin Hanzal picked up a puck along the boards and fed it to Radim Vrbata, who tipped it past Roberto Luongo. Vancouver followed up with quick penalties to Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler, keeping the momentum in Phoenix's favour.
By the end of the first, the Coyotes still held a one-goal lead, but shot the shot differential had narrowed to 7-6 and Vancouver was climbing back into the game.
Dan Hamhuis tied it just 25 seconds into the middle frame, then the Canucks took the lead on a power-play goal after Antoine Vermette was whistled for running over Roberto Luongo. Tortorella deployed a new look with the man advantage, where Alex Burrows essentially replaced Jason Garrison in a group of four forwards plus Hamhuis. Ryan Kesler moved back towards the point and scored the goal on one-time blast from the top of the left circle.
Captain Shane Doan manufactured the tying goal near the end of the second period on a shift against Vancouver's fourth line. Say what you will about John Tortorella overusing his star players; sometimes the alternative doesn't look good at all (from Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun):
“That's me,… Tortorella said. “I tried to stretch my bench and shouldn't have. You put that on me. I shouldn't have my fourth line out there then.…
The Canucks were unable to capitalize on a third-period power play, sending the game to overtime and eventually a shootout, where their luck ran out. Through six rounds, only Alex Burrows was able to score for Vancouver, while both Chris Higgins and Ryan Kesler hit iron on their attempts. Roberto Luongo looked solid all the way through, till Vermette's winner trickled off the end of his outstretched foot and dribbled across the goal line to hand the home team another victory.
The game showed that the Canucks are on par to compete with this Pacific Division rival, but also showed why they're running neck-and-neck with Phoenix. Final shots were 33-32 Vancouver, each team took three minor penalties and the final result basically came down to luck.
After the awful start, the Canucks should be pleased to have earned a point, but now they're two behind Phoenix, still fourth in the division, and the schedule doesn't get any easier from here.
Quick Hits:
- Vancouver plays next in San Jose on Thursday. The Sharks have now lost three straight in extra time, including Tuesday night to Buffalo, though they were robbed when officials failed to notice that San Jose's Tommy Wingels had put the puck in the net in overtime. Here's the video:
- Former Canuck Manny Malhotra took another impressive step in his NHL comeback when he scored the winning goal in overtime for the Carolina Hurricanes over Philadelphia on Tuesday. In three games with the Hurricanes, Malhotra's ice time has increased from eight to 11 to 15 minutes, and he continues to do big business in the face-off circle.
- Canucks' prospect Hunter Shinkaruk is out of action for the Medicine Hat Tigers with a hip injury, but hopes to return this weekend. He has been named to the WHL squad for the Subway Super Series against a team of Russian prospects that will run in Alberta later this month. Click here for the full story from the Vancouver Sun.
- Over on TSN.ca, former NHL referee Kerry Fraser weighs in on Joffrey Lupul's flying elbow attempt on Henrik Sedin from Saturday night, and it's a very good read. Here's Fraser's bottom line:
Striking Henrik Sedin would have been no accident! I look at this play similarly to a player swinging a stick at the head of his opponent from close range but where no contact was made. Without question I would assess a match penalty for "attempt to injure." I would hope every Referee would do the same.
Fraser clearly doesn't see a lot of grey area in the play—the Canucks are very lucky that Henrik had his wits about him.
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