Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Canucks 1 Stars 2
Jason Botchford (Vancouver Province) billed it as the battle of two top goalies.
It was.
Except only one goalie faced a lot of work.
Facing one of the top teams in the league, the Canucks came out and played a heckuva game. They forechecked and forced the Stars to a lot of turnovers and poured 34 shots on Marty Turco. On the other end, they did okay without top defensive defenseman Willie Mitchell in the lineup - Mitchell may miss more games with lingering headaches (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun) - and limited the Stars to just 26 shots. By the 14-minute mark of the second period, the Canucks had limited the Stars to only six shots for the game. In the end, the only goals the Stars could score were a fluke goal off Kevin Bieksa's stick and one on an 80-second 5-on-3 man advantage.
Like many games this season, the Canucks' work ethic was there (Ed Willes, Vancouver Province); with a little more finish, they could have had a better result (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province).
My 3 Stars of the Game
The Canucks finish off their 9-of-11 games on the road stretch on Wednesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.
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Comments/Questions: Feel free to post in the comments section or email me at gocanucksgo10 (at) hotmail (dot) com.
Technorati Tags: NHL, hockey, Vancouver, Canucks, Dallas+Stars
It was.
Except only one goalie faced a lot of work.
Facing one of the top teams in the league, the Canucks came out and played a heckuva game. They forechecked and forced the Stars to a lot of turnovers and poured 34 shots on Marty Turco. On the other end, they did okay without top defensive defenseman Willie Mitchell in the lineup - Mitchell may miss more games with lingering headaches (Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun) - and limited the Stars to just 26 shots. By the 14-minute mark of the second period, the Canucks had limited the Stars to only six shots for the game. In the end, the only goals the Stars could score were a fluke goal off Kevin Bieksa's stick and one on an 80-second 5-on-3 man advantage.
Like many games this season, the Canucks' work ethic was there (Ed Willes, Vancouver Province); with a little more finish, they could have had a better result (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province).
My 3 Stars of the Game
- Marty Turco (DAL): Many of his 33 saves on 34 Vancouver shots were of the great variety.
- Mattias Ohlund (VAN): Led a Willie Mitchell-less defense logging 27:16 minutes of ice-time.
- Mike Modano (DAL): Played big on the Stars' third period powerplays and scored the game-winner.
- Luc Bourdon stepped into the lineup and fared much better than his first two outings. He kept his game simple and made the simple play every time - he logged 9:58 minutes of ice-time and you didn't even notice him. That's a good thing.
- Brendan Morrison had another strong game. I thought he was still fighting the puck a bit but he was good in everything else. He logged 17:28 minutes of ice-time, had three shots on goal and won 10-of-15 faceoffs.
- Marc Chouinard has also stepped it up. Against St. Louis, Nashville and Dallas, he's won a combined 21-of-26 faceoffs (81%).
- Josh Green had a strong game as well. For someone who was supposed to be a defensive player, he was probably the Canucks' best offensive threat besides the Sedins and even saw some powerplay time in the third period.
- Waiting For Stanley and The Chief Canuck posts their postgame thoughts
The Canucks finish off their 9-of-11 games on the road stretch on Wednesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.
______________
Comments/Questions: Feel free to post in the comments section or email me at gocanucksgo10 (at) hotmail (dot) com.
Technorati Tags: NHL, hockey, Vancouver, Canucks, Dallas+Stars
2 Comments:
Ohlund did play pretty good didn't he? I like how he jumped in on the rush without getting caught. Too bad he didn't bury his chances.
What's it going to take for the Canucks to be a more disciplined group? It seems like they're taking way too many penalties, and it's costing them games.
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