Canucks Beat Penguins
Roberto Luongo injured, but Canucks pull out win.
Not even a minute into the first period, and former Vancouver Canuck Matt Cooke laid a “submariner” on the Canucks’ Alex Edler, sending him head over heels in the defensive zone. Immediately Jannik Hansen came over to defend Edler, and a line brawl insued. We haven’t seen a brawl like this since the game against Edmonton on February 16th 2008. There were four sperate scrums going on at once, and in the end both Matt Cooke and Jannik Hansen were thrown from the game with game misconducts. Later on near the ten minute mark of the firt period, on a play where the pens shot missed the net, Roberto Luongo kicked out his left pad to attempt the save and ended up laying face first on the ice, apparently hurt. The play was whistled dead and the Canucks trainer Mike Bernstein came out to help Luongo. Taylor Pyatt and Mattias Ohlund helped Roberto Luongo skate off the ice, while he put no weight whatsoever on his left leg. He left and didnt return for the remainder of the gane, while Curtis Sanford took over the golatending duties. Late in the first period, on a strange play deep in the Penguins zone, Pavol Demitra flipped the puck over Danny Sabourin, the penguins back-up goaltender, and went around the net where the puck came out, and flicked it into the back of the net. It’s Demitra’s 8th point since his return to the line-up from his rib injury. He’s been on fire. The Canucks finish the first period leading the game 1-0.
The Canucks dominated through the first half of the second, leading the Penguins 5-0 in shots after the first 12 minutes, and pulled ahead 2-0. Pavol won the face-off and Daniel Sedin grabbed the puck at the faceoff circle deep in the Penguins zone, skated up the side boards, beside Sabourin, popped the puck underneath Sabourins left pad, and deep into the net. In the second half of the period the Penguins started applying some pressure, but could not convert. This included a lackluster end of third period power-play for the Penguins, where they just couldn’t get set up in the offensive zone due to the good penalty-killing of the Canucks. One not so nice statistic the Canucks faced going into the third was the fact that the Penguins are 6-3 when trailing going into the third period.
20 seconds into the third period, the Penguns pull in close after they score just after the Canucks penalty had expired. The Third was fairly uneventful, but the Penguins pressured with a few minutes left late in the third, but couldn’t beat Sanford for the tie. Pavol Demitra put the icing on the cake with halfa minute to go getting the empty netter. The Canucks finish the road trip 3-0-1 getting 7 out of a possible 8 points and are still first place in the northwest division. Tonight’s three stars were 1- Daniel Sedin, 2- Henrik Sedin, and 3 – Pavol Demitra.
Tonights goals were scored by Pavol Demitra (Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin), Daniel Sedin (Henrik Sedin, and Pavol Demitra (Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin). A huge night for Vancouver’s top line ammasing 8 points.
The Vancouver Cancuks play again Monda at home against the Detroit Red Wings, at 7pm PST. The game is broadcast live in HD on Sportsnet pacific, and live streaming online on radio with Team1040.ca
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