Canucks Shoot Down Stars To Claim Fifth Straight

By Nelson Daily Sports

Leigh Ramsden lives in Vancouver and is an avid Canucks fan, having been a partial season ticket holder for over 10 years. He's old enough to have witnessed all three Stanley Cup losses, as such, his prime goal is to remove those scars by seeing a Cup brought to Vancouver. Leigh is Fighting For Stanley's (www.fightingforstanley.ca/vancouver) west coast correspondent, and will also blog after all Canuck games for The Nelson Daily.

The Vancouver Canucks continued their late-season homestand on Friday night at Rogers Arena, as they hosted the Dallas Stars, currently embroiled in a dogfight with their Pacific Division brethren for three of the four remaining playoff berths.  Vancouver rode the solid goaltending of surprise starter Cory Schneider, and saw the return of a killer instinct for goal scoring as they coasted to a 5-2 victory over the visitors.

Henrik Sedin, who tallied three assists on the night, led the Canucks offensively.  Max Lapierre, promoted to the “first” line with Henrik and Alex Burrows, also added three points, scoring a goal and two assists.

Chris Higgins opened the scoring for Vancouver, beating Stars’ starting netminder Kari Lehtonen at 6:17 of the first period after some nice work down the wall and a good pass into the slot from Jannik Hansen.  The first period was relatively even, but Schneider was forced to make a number of quality saves as Dallas outshot the Canucks 13-7.

After giving up the tying goal to Stars’ dynamic forward Steve Ott just after the intermission, the Canucks were the better team in the second period, buoyed by a couple of power plays.  The Canucks were able to move the puck reasonably well on those power plays, and were rewarded late in the second one on a goal by Sami Salo, as he blasted it by a screened Lehtonen.  The Canucks took command of the game give minutes later, as Henrik found unlikely goal scorer Andrew Alberts creeping in from the point.  Alberts’ shot deflected off Dallas defenseman Stephane Robidas and past Lehtonen for what was eventually the game-winning goal.  This second period was atypical for the Canucks, as they outshot the Stars 20-13.

The Canucks put the clamp down on Dallas in the third period, only allowing four shots from the allegedly desperate visitors.  Honestly, as a Canucks supporter, it was refreshing to be in the rink for something more than a one-goal game.  The Canucks were able to score twice on their seven shots in the final stanza, Burrows and Lapierre adding the icing on the cake.  Jake Dowell beat Schneider in garbage time with less than three minutes remaining.

Before the game, coach Alain Vigneault again tweaked his lines in an effort to source more offense for his club.  Lapierre was the prime beneficiary, who slotted in with Henrik and Burrows as AV reunited two-thirds of his top scoring line.  Mason Raymond was put back down on the second unit with Kesler and Booth, the third line was left unchanged, and the fourth line ran with Malhotra centering Weise and Kassian.  The tinkering clearly worked, as Henrik seemingly found his game and made a big difference offensively.

Overall, this was a tremendous performance by the Canucks.  They really limited Dallas’ scoring chances throughout the game, and in a familiar story, the goaltender was there to shut the door when required (most notably, midway through the second period, Schneider made a huge save against Loui Eriksson on a two on one with the game tied at one and the Canucks on their first power play).  The Canucks, playing without Daniel Sedin, Kevin Bieksa, and Roberto Luongo, stuck to their game plan and it is continuing to work.  There wasn’t a huge difference in their play tonight as opposed to other recent efforts, other than the fact that they got a few bounces tonight, pucks came to them as opposed to away, and they were able to get a few past the other goaltender.

GAME OBSERVATIONS

• The impact of the two goal lead (or better) is immense on the team’s ice time.  The extra cushion allows AV to roll his four lines and three D pairings more consistently.  Tonight, no forwards saw less than 10 or more than 20 minutes of ice.  As the team’s prime concern right now is managing minutes and avoiding injury, this is huge.
• Bieksa sat out his second straight game with an undisclosed injury.  I’m doubtful the injury is serious, but it is mildly concerning.  It’s comforting knowing that the team is being extremely conservative on these matters at this stage of the year, and Canucks’ brass hasn’t indicated that there’s any risk that Bieksa won’t be available come playoff time.
• The Canucks D pairings were Hamhuis-Tanev, Edler-Gragnani, and Salo-Alberts, and all were extremely effective.  The defense did a better job again of stepping up and now allowing easy access into the zone.  Salo and Alberts were on the ice for the Ott goal and didn’t look good, allowed Ott unencumbered access to the font of the net, but otherwise, the entire team was good.
• Alberts made up for it by scoring only his second goal of the year.  I keep saying it, but I really like the element he adds to the back end.  For the most part, he’s been very good when inserted into the lineup in the last couple of months.
• Lapierre looked great playing up with Sedin and Burrows.  The finish on his goal was world class, as he took his time and snapped a wrist shot into the top corner.  The goal came against Stars’ backup Richard Bachman, who replaced Lehtonen midway through the third period (likely to rest him as Dallas plays another important game Saturday night).
• It looked like AV was trying to get the top unit out against Steve Ott’s line in the third, and it paid off with two goals.  Henrik’s play on the Burrows goal was tremendous, as he held the puck on the right wall, faked a pass back to the point, and put the puck to the net where Burrows buried it.  Vintage Sedin.
• Media reports indicate that Daniel is progressing nicely and will likely be ready for the playoffs.  This is great news, however, with concussions, things can change instantly and he could suffer a setback at any time.
• With their fifth straight win, the Canucks are in a great position to overtake St. Louis for the Western Conference title.  They sit one point back of the Blues with four games to play.  Vancouver will play four games against non-playoff teams (Calgary twice, Anaheim, Edmonton), while St. Louis finishes with tougher tests against Detroit, Phoenix, Dallas, and Columbus.  The Canucks must beat St. Louis in points, as the Blues will win a tiebreaker between the teams.
• Vancouver won’t care too much about playoff seeding.  The first round opponent will be one of Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Jose.  Of those, the Canucks would likely want to avoid the Sharks the most, followed by the Kings.  Predicting where these teams will finish (one will finish third, with the others 7-9) is almost impossible at this stage.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the last couple games of the season if the playoff picture solidifies much before then.

IF THIS WERE A PLAYOFF GAME

A convincing win against a desperate team.  The Canucks stepped it up a notch tonight and it showed.  Vancouver is now 7-3 in its last 10 games when considering whether or not it “would have been” a playoff game.

PARTING SHOTS

In-Arena Observation of the Night:  For many reasons, this was the most fun I’ve had at Rogers Arena all season long.  Mostly because of the score, the crowd was abuzz and happy for most of the second and third periods.  It was a very good environment, lots of fun, and the crowd showed that when the team puts its best effort on the ice, the crowd will do the same in the stands.

Looking ahead: The Canucks face the Calgary Flames tomorrow on Hockey Night in Canada.  The Flames are desperate, and anything other than two points will officially eliminate them from playoff contention.  While the Canucks played extremely well tonight, look for a classic Flames/Canucks game tomorrow.