Vancouver Canucks Hockey Stuff

Luongo solid as he stops 45 of 46 shots

Roberto Luongo didn’t get the shut-out but he may have played his best game of the season, when it counted most, as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Calgary Flames 4-1 tonight at GM Place.

The first period was shaky at best, the Canucks being outshot 21-9, they still came out of the first period up 1-0 on a goal by Rick Rypien.  The Canucks just couldn’t keep the puck out of their zone in the first, and looked a little slow off the start.  They sure came out a lot better in the second period, and Luongo bailed them out time after time again.   During a couple of consecutive Vancouver penalties, Luongo kept the puck out of the net to keep the game 1-0.  It wasn’t until the 14 minute mark that Iginla was able to put a puck past Luongo to tie up the game.  22 seconds later, Mattias Ohlund slapped on from the point which deflected off Calgary defencemen Dion’s stick to sail past Mikka Kiprusoff to make it 2-1 Vancouver.  The third period was a goaltender duel with both goalies all over saving everything coming at them.  kiprusoff looked great in the third making some big saves off the Sedins and the Sundin Kesler line.  It was 2-1 Vancouver up until 14:51 when Ohlund slapped another shot from inside the point that made the game 3-1 Canucks.  Less than 3 minutes later Alex Burrows made a seet interception pass to Daniel Sedin, and the Sedins walked into the Calgary zone.  Daniel passed to Henrik, and after almost fanning on the shot he picks up the puck and rifles it home past Kiprusoff.  4-1 Vancouver.  The best part?  Hearing the taunts in the crowd “Calgary sucks”.  It’s playoff fever in vancouver already.

Tonights three stars were Roberto Luongo with a stunning performance in goal, Mattias Ohlund with 2 goals and 3 blocked shots, and Mikka Kiprusoff.  The Flames ended up outshooting the Canucks 47-25, but the Canucks come out on top to tie the Flames in the Northwest for 1st, although Calgary has the tie-breaker for first in the division as they have more wins.  Both teams now have 2 games left, so the Canucks need to go out and play the LA Kings at home on thursday night at 7pm, and the Edmonton Oilers (who were statistically eliminated from the playoffs tonight) on Saturday in Edmonton at 12 noon.  Both games are available on sportsnet, and you can hear both games live online on streaming audio at team1040.ca.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Roberto Luongo Gets 6th Shut-out

Getting 4 shots through the first period and a half didn’t stop the Vancouver Canucks from beating the St. Louis Blues 3-0 tonight at GM Place in Vancouver.  The Canucks are now 16-3-1 since the beginning of February, and are on a roll with a franchise breaking 11 straight wins on home ice.  Alex Burrows pots one in the second period to make it 1-0 after a scoreless first period.  In the second, Ryan Kesler broke up the right side and made a beautiful cross-ice pass to Mason Raymond who tapped it in to make it 2-0 for the Canucks.  In the third period Daniel passed it out front from behind the net to Henrik who wristed it past Mason to make it 3-0 Canucks.

First star was Roberto Luongo, second star Henrik Sedin and Mason Raymond the third star.  The Canucks will now hit the road for a 6 game road trip, all against western conference teams, with the next game at Phoenix on Saturday night at 7pm on CBC.  The game can be heard live on streaming radio at the Team1040.ca  The Canucks now sit 4th in the western conference, one point ahead of Chicago and 3 behind Calgary in the Northwest division.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Vancouver Canucks beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2

What a great comeback game for the Vancouver Canucks tonight, after a dissapointing loss Friday night to the Dallas Stars, the Canucks came out with a vengeance in the first period.  Up until 10 minutes left in the third, the Canucks were outpacing the Canadiens in shots by 2:1.  Halak was pulled in the third period in favour of Carey Price, who was looking forward to playing on “home ice”.  The Canucks had a great game out of the Sedin Twins and Alex Burrows, combining for 3 of Vancouver’s 4 goals.  Roberto Luongo made some huge 3rd period saves to seal the win, as the Canadiens were piling on pressure late to try to get the equalizer.  Montreal scored with just over 2 minutes left in regulation to bring the score to 4-2, but that is all they could muster up for offence.

On a strange note, the Canucks didn’t have a single penalty called against them this game, which is only the third time in club history that this has happened, and the only time in the last eight years.   Effectively the penalty kill was at 100% because they didnt have to kill one!  The Canucks offence didnt pour it on the powerplay though, going 0 for 2 i believe.  Ryan Kesler’s goal in the third was a beautiful goal, a sweet slick pass from Mats Sundin to Kesler for the goal.  The other really notable goal of the game was Henrik edin’s goal in the 1st period, I belive it was the first, that was a tic tac toe play.  Started from Sami Salo clearing the puck out of the Canucks zone, up the boards to Burrows, who cleared the Canadiens blue line along the boards, dished across ice to Daniel, and Danny passed it back again to Henrik Sedin, and Hank nailed it home for the goal.

The Canucks are back on the road Tuesday with a stop in Calgary to play the Flames at 6:30pm, broadcast on Sportsnet, and streamed via online radio at the team, team1040.ca.  The Canucks are now sitting at 5th place in the western conference with tonight’s win, and have won five of their last six games.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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

Popularity: 9% [?]

Big win in the Big Apple

After a great first period, the canucks scored 2 more to make it 4 nothing before the rangers poured on the offense, however it wasn’t enough to beat the Canucks.  The Canucks beat the Rangers  6-3.  This was Markus Naslund’s first game playing against the Canucks, and he was largely ineffective, a few nifty plays but finishes with just one assist.

The first period saw Alex Burrows with a short-handed goal to make it 2-0 for the canucks, after Kyle Wellwood scored just over 4 minutes in to open the game’s scoring.  The Canucks dominated the first period play, spending alot of time in the Rangers defensive zone.    The Canucks left the 1st leading 2-0.

In the second, the Canucks should have had the game with a score of 7 or 8-0.  This is just how many chances they had, especially with a long 5 on 3 five minutes into the second period.  The Canucks had what appeared to be a goal on a slap by Sami Salo (you could clearly see the puck cross the goal line in the overhead camera view and the TSN announcers also called it a clear cut goal) however it was called a no goal, keeping the score at 4-1.  Shortly after the play resumed the Canucks were still on a 5 on 3 powerplay, and Demitra buried it behind Lundqvist, who pulled himself from the net without any orders from NY coach Tom Renney.  Something I have never seen during NHL play.

The third period was dominated by the NY Rangers, who came out hard against the Canucks trying to catch up on the scoreboard.  NYR scored a goal at the 7:45 mark of the third to make it 5 – 3.   Shane o’brien had a very poor night for the canucks, ammassing 5 minor penalties, costing the canucks a goal in the 2nd, and stressing the team out late in the second who had to have a great penalty kill after he got a double-minor for boarding and unsportsmanlike conduct.  Roberto Luongo was sharp throughout the third period, stopping everything NY shot at him.  Daniel Sedin put the icing on the cake with an empty net goal with 6 seconds left in the third period.

Tonights goals were scored by Kyle Wellwood (Mattias Ohlund, Taylor Pyatt), Alex Burrows Shorthanded (Jannik Hansen), Alex Burrows (Jannik Hansen), Ryan Johnson (Taylor Pyatt, Mattias Ohlund), Pavol Demitra (Henrik Sedin, Sami Salo), and Daniel Sedin (Ryan Kesler, Mattias Ohlund).  The three stars for tonights games were 1- Alex Burrows, 2- Kyle Wellwood, and 3- Jannik Hansen, as picked by the Hockey Writers Association.

Th Canucks play again tomorrow night against the Minnesota Wild, in Minnesota, and the game starts at 5:00pm and is broadcast live on Sportsnet Pacific, and streaming live on online radio on Team1040.ca

Popularity: 9% [?]

Thanks Roberto, Another Canucks Win!

If it wasn’t for Roberto Luongo’s impressive first period, including almost a solid two minutes of 5 on 3 penalty killing time, the Vancouver Canucks would not have won the game tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The Canucks netminder was stellar in the new Canucks 3rd jerseys,  while the offensive players scared away Toskala from the Leafs net after scoring 4 goals on 9 shots through a period and a half.  pavol Demitra returned to the line-up tonght, making a three assist effort.  Kyle Wellwood opened the scoring on a beautiful deflection into the net, against his former team.  Wellwood leads the Canucks in goals scored.

Tonight’s goal scorers included Kyle Wellwood (Pavol Demitra, Shane O’Brien), Ryan Kesler PP (Mattias Ohlund, Pavol Demitra), Willie Mitchell (Alexandre Burrows, Jannik Hansen), and Daniel Sedin (Laurence Nycholat, Pavol Demitra).

The Canucks found themselves in the penalty box alot again tonight, especially in the third period when the Leafs tried staging a comeback.  The Leafs scored on one of their third period power plays while pulling Curtis Joseph (who replaced Toskala in net half way through the second) for the extra attacker, making it a 6 on 4.  Overall, the Leafs were one for eight, and the Canucks were one for five on the power play.

Tonight’s three stars were picked by CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada and were 1- Roberto Luongo 2- Willie Mitchell and 3- Pavol Demitra.  The Canucks ended their six game home stand with a 4-1-1 record.

The Canucks now head out on a four game road trip, playing their next game agianst the New York Islanders on Monday night at 4pm, the game being broadcast on Sportsnet Pacific and streaming live online on Team1040.ca

Popularity: 9% [?]