Sunday, October 16, 2005
Canucks 5 Stars 2
The Vancouver Canucks opened their four-game homestand with a 5-2 win over the Dallas Stars. Lee Goren scored the game-winner early in the third period and Alex Auld stopped 18 of 20 Dallas shots. The game recap is here; the score sheet and stat sheet are here and here.
My notes from the game:
My notes from the game:
- In just 7:46 minutes of ice-time, Lee Goren had 1 goal, 1 hit, 1 fight and 4 shots. He was also a +1 for the night. Not a bad stat line, especially for a fourth liner.
- The Stars looked tired tonight and had trouble keeping up with a speedy, determined Canucks team. They looked especially frustrated and undisciplined, giving the Canucks 10 powerplay opportunities, including two 5-on-3's; the Canucks scored 3 powerplay goals.
- For the second game in a row, the Canucks got 5 goals from 5 different players - Daniel Sedin, Salo, Goren, Bertuzzi and Park. Sedin's and Goren's goals were their first of the season.
- Brendan Morrison played an agressive game - probably his best game of the season - especially on the penalty kill. However, he was once again held off the scoresheet and only has 2 assists in 6 games so far.
- Besides the Stars' weak second goal, Alex Auld looked solid again in net. His save of the night came off a Bill Guerin one-timer - Guerin was wide open in front of the crease - with the Canucks only leading by one goal in the third. Including his win against Detroit, he is now 2-0 for the season and has only allowed a total of 4 goals.
- Still with Auld... interesting quote from Marc Crawford during his post-game conference. Asked about Auld's play tonight, Crawford smiled and said something like, "... that's what you want from your... (pause)... goaltenders... for them to make the timely saves..." Part of me thought he stopped himself from using the word 'back-up' to describe Auld. Also thought the 'timely saves' comment may have been a bit of a shot on Cloutier. Okay, I'm psycho-analyzing.
- Sami Salo again led the defensemen with 26:52 minutes of ice-time, but the rest of the minutes were fairly spread out over the rest of the defense. Ohlund and Jovanovski logged 21 minutes each; Allen and Baumgartner played 17 minutes each; and Steve McCarthy played a season-high 15 minutes. I like it as it means 1.) all six defensemen are playing well and 2.) the top-3 aren't logging 25-30 minutes - a lot of minutes in an 82-game season. (Baumgartner's minutes are on the high side, but this is partly due to the Canucks being on the powerplay a lot.)
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