Sunday January 26: Vancouver Canucks 5 - Phoenix Coyotes 4 (OT)
The Vancouver Canucks were their own worst enemies on Sunday at Rogers Arena, but Kevin Bieksa's overtime goal sealed the win for the home team. Here are your highlights:
Just 10 days ago, these same two teams battled to a 1-0 conclusion down in the desert. On Sunday, there were goals galore—and the Canucks were scoring them at both ends of the rink.
Ryan Kesler and Roberto Luongo both deflected pucks into their own net to help Antoine Vermette build a hat trick that consisted of one goal at even strength, one shorthanded and one on the power play—the first NHL player to accomplish that feat since Steven Stamkos pulled it off back in October. Shane Doan added the fourth Coyotes marker on a breakaway as he pushed the puck towards Luongo and it trickled through his pads.
On this night, the bad luck wasn't enough to unravel Vancouver's shot at a win. The building had good energy right from the start thanks, in part I think, to terrific national anthems from the visiting Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda. Right off the bat, the crowd was chanting "Go Canucks Go"—like the old days!
The building got even louder after the Canucks built a two-goal lead over a span of 44 seconds midway through the first. Kevin Bieksa scored his first goal since January 5 and Jannik Hansen made a great play to pot his first since December 30, sending Vancouver to the room with a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Despite all the goals, the power play still failed to click on four opportunities—and allowed the shorty. When Derek Morris was whistled for high-sticking with the game tied and 11 seconds to go in the third period, I wanted nothing more than for the Canucks to decline!
Vancouver actually did generate some pressure on the 4-on-3 that ensued in overtime. Once they got back to even strength, Kevin Bieksa potted the winner with a race down Main Street, picking up his own rebound and depositing it over a sprawling Mike Smith to give Vancouver the two points.
The win keeps the Canucks five up over the Coyotes. Last night, they also leapfrogged Minnesota to move back into seventh place in the West—and are just one point behind struggling Los Angeles. The Kings have lost four in a row and face the red-hot Sharks on Monday, so a win over Edmonton *could* move Vancouver into third place in the Pacific for the first time since early in the season.
As far as the Canucks taking revenge on Martin Hanzal, he looked strong in the first period, with three of his five shots on goal, but ended up minus-2 on the night—on the ice for Zac Dalpe's 4-2 goal and Kevin Bieksa's winner. Dan Hamhuis also took Hanzal to school in the third period—first with a big hit in the corner, then a skirmish in front of the benches that resulted in offsetting minors. For all his big talk, Dale Weise was quiet in his nine minutes of icetime except for a dumb goalie-interference penalty on Mike Smith at the end of the first period which set Phoenix up for a very strong start in the second: Vancouver didn't get its first shot till the 7:50 mark of the middle frame.
Despite all the goals, the game dragged at times, with a few long back-and-forth sections where nothing much happened. Bieksa led the Canucks with five of the team's 25 shots, followed by Alex Edler with four. Still not much pop offensively from the forwards.
After the game, Mike Sullivan said that Jordan Schroeder will be available on Monday after his weekend conditioning stint out in Abbotsford. Now's as good a time as any to see if he can bring some playmaking punch.
The Canucks aren't skating at all this morning, so we'll have to wait till gametime to see if/how Schroeder is deployed.
Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers - Monday January 27 - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet West
Vancouver Canucks 27-17-9 63 points fourth in Pacific Division Edmonton Oilers 16-32-6 38 points seventh in Pacific Division
The Canucks will look to keep their season series perfect against the Oilers when the two teams square off for the fourth time this year on Monday night at Rogers Arena.
Vancouver has beaten Edmonton 6-2 and 4-0 at home this year, as well as picking up a 2-1 win last week at Rexall Place. Roberto Luongo was in net for all three of those wins, but Eddie Lack could get the start tonight on the second half of the back-to-back. Luongo made some great saves against Phoenix on Sunday—mostly a victim of bad luck and bad bounces on the four goals he allowed.
Edmonton's in a back-to-back situation of their own, having won their first game in two weeks with a 5-1 victory over Nashville on Sunday at Rexall. Ben Scrivens played Sunday in Edmonton; it's been confirmed that we'll see the enigmatic Ilya Bryzgalov tonight in Vancouver.
The Oilers haven't won two in a row since beating Winnipeg and Calgary on either side of the Christmas break, so the odds should dictate that the Canucks can pick up the two points tonight and head into Wednesday's game against Chicago feeling somewhat confident in themselves.
But let's not take too much for granted: we've seen Vancouver sag at unlikely times against the Oilers in the past. Hopefully the team can build off last night's dramatic OT winner and bring a solid effort tonight!