Canucks Recap
The Vancouver Canucks snapped a three-game head-to-head losing streak to Seattle by beating the Kraken 4-1 on Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena.
“Both teams needing depth scoring” was one of our themes heading into this one and both teams got it. Five of the six goals were posted by players who are typically bottom-6 forwards.
1st Period
The glaring moment of the period occurred when Kraken D-man Justin Schultz swatted a cross-ice, backhand pass in the neutral zone that never reached his intended target. The giveaway on the power play ended up with Canucks penalty killer Teddy Blueger skating in and beating Seattle goalie Joey Daccord with a backhand deke at 5:05.
It was Blueger’s 1st goal with the Canucks, his 100th career NHL point, and the only goal of the period.
Six-and-a-half minutes in, Seattle center Matty Beniers celebrated a goal on a man advantage, but his 4th tally of the season was taken off the board when the play was ruled offside following video review.
The shots were close and the chances pretty even. The stat that jumped out was the Kraken winning 64% of the face-offs in the first twenty minutes.
2nd Period
The Kraken came out flying in the second period, but Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko was up to the task. Seattle owned the offensive zone in the early going while piling up the shots-on-goal.
After withstanding the pressure, Vancouver caught its breath and began to turn the tables at the midway point. They’d cash in on some great second effort by forward Conor Garland. He’d create the chances and his linemate Dakota Joshua would cash in on a rebound at 12:07.
A pivotal moment came shortly after. The Kraken went on the penalty kill for the first time in the game when D-man Brian Dumoulin went off for cross-checking Phil Di Giuseppe at 13:15.
Seattle’s PK held the Canucks to two shots-on-goal on the man advantage and killed it off, setting up the opportunity to cut the Vancouver lead in half with one shot. Kraken rookie Tye Kartye would be the man to deliver it from the high slot with just 2:31 remaining in the period. 2-1 Canucks.
3rd Period
Word came from the Kraken dressing room that energy forward Brandon Tanev suffered a lower body injury and would not return to the game. We’ll see if the injury was a relapse of the one he suffered on opening night that kept him out of the Seattle line-up for a dozen games.
The Kraken kept coming as the period progressed, but it would be the Canucks to tally first. A clean offensive zone face-off win led to a D-to-D pass and a blast by blueliner Filip Hronek that was tipped in by Sam Lafferty.
A little less than three minutes later, Canucks winger Nils Höglander would add all of the insurance Vancouver needed at 12:38. Ilya Mikheyev scored Vancouver’s 5th goal of the night just after the conclusion of a late power play.
Yanni Gourde and Blueger dropped the mitts near the end of the game. The festive fight happened with 1:24 remaining.
Shots on goal went the way of the Canucks 27-24. Power plays: Vancouver 0-for-3, 0-for-4.
By the time the night was over Vancouver had won almost 51% of the face-offs.
Canucks 3 Stars:
1) Conor Garland – A catalyst all evening long, ended up with two assists.
2) Nils Åman – Called up, signed a new contract, and picked up two assists.
3) Thatcher Demko – Made the big stops through the first two periods with result still in question. Made 23 saves.
JT miller has great hands kinda like Gretzky… he is subtle in his approach to the play. Charges the blue line. Amazing work behind the next and in front of the goalie. A worker amongst workers