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CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Flames 3 Canucks 2

The Vancouver Canucks were looking to bounce back from their uninspired effort Thursday night; they did.

But it still wasn't enough.

The Canucks thoroughly outplayed the Flames for the first half of the game and built a 2-0 lead. Then Matt Cooke, who I called out at the latest Crazy Canucks episode, flattened Jarome Iginla with an open ice hit.

(Warning: Big praise on a Calgary Flame following.)

What happened after was nothing short of amazing.

A furious Jarome Iginla is a thing to behold. Even casual followers of the Calgary Flames know this to be true.

So when Iginla was the recipient of a heavy jolt -- courtesy of Matt Cooke, pest extraordinaire of the Vancouver Canucks -- no one could be surprised by his brisk transformation.

Barely controlled rage -- and amazingly great hockey.

Desperate for a fight with the culprit, Iginla had been turned down.

Therefore, he turned it up.

Way up.

The Flames captain snorted and fumed through the night's last half -- scoring a honey of a goal in the second period, setting up the game-tying marker by Rhett Warrener in the third -- and propelled his boys to a hard-earned 3-2 decision in National Hockey League action at GM Place.
It was the type of dominant performace the Canucks have been looking for to snap out of their offensive funk. Maybe when then get it, they'll score more than two goals in a game. Because as good as the defense has been (for the most part anyway), the Canucks won't win many games if they don't start putting the puck behind the net.

Now, I don't want to take away from the effort last night. The boys in vintage blue came out flying and built a 2-0 lead on Welcome Back Sami's powerplay goal and Taylor Pyatt's team-leading eighth goal.

"The way we played is what I expected -- a hard game and a tough game and we responded," said Canucks coach Alain Vigneault, who parked Jan Bulis in the press box and Brendan Morrison on the fourth line to send a stern message.

"We didn't get bombarded in the third. We gave up three chances and they scored two goals that were scrambly and we had six [chances]. It was our inability to get that next goal that's costing us big points."
The scary thing is, I don't know right now if Nonis and Vigneault know where to get it from.

My 3 Stars of the Game

  1. Jarome Iginla (CAL): One goal, one assist, and led the Flames comeback.
  2. Mikka Kiprusoff (CAL): After an early 2-0 deficit, the Kipper shut it down and wouldn't give the Canucks that elusive third goal.
  3. Markus Naslund (VAN): Played an inspired game and generated plenty of scoring opportunities.

About the game around the blogosphere

Official Statistics

Next Game

Another hot team comes to town on Tuesday when the Canucks take on the Detroit Red Wings.

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Comments/Questions: Feel free to post in the comments section or email me at gocanucksgo10 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

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posted by J.J. Guerrero, 9:21 AM

1 Comments:

At November 12, 2006 11:23 AM, Blogger HG said...

hey dude

thanks for the link on your post. it was a good game last night, a little stressful towards the end, but i swear huselius makes me scream with anger and joy.

 

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