Henrik Sedin finally scores, Canucks win
VANCOUVER 5 CALGARY 3
CALGARY — The Vancouver Canucks made the Calgary Flames pay for their mistakes on Tuesday night.
Bo Horvat and Henrik Sedin scored 38 seconds apart in the third period as the opportunistic Canucks beat the Flames 5-3, despite being outshot 33-21.
“It definitely wasn’t our best game. It wasn’t like we dominated 60 minutes,” Horvat said. “But we scored at the right time and made big plays at the right time.”
Horvat put the visitors in front at 4:12 on the power play when he swatted in a centring pass from Ben Hutton.
Shortly after, Calgary’s Brett Kulak made a bad pinch and his defence partner Matt Bartkowski got caught flat-footed in the neutral zone. That enabled the Sedins to break in dangerously, with Daniel setting up Henrik’s first goal of the season.
“I feel better than the last couple [of] years,” said Sedin, 37, who had last scored on March 23, 2017. “We’ve created enough chances for me to put the puck in the net. Early in the season you need bounces to get goals early, and I haven’t gotten that.”
A big moment came late in the second when the Flames, leading 3-2, got a power play at 18:04.
With Calgary in a good spot to open up a two-goal cushion, the Canucks instead scored a short-handed goal to tie it. After outracing TJ Brodie for a loose puck and then drawing Mike Smith out of position, Brandon Sutter had his centring pass bounce into the open net off the leg of Derek Dorsett.
It was a tough sequence for Brodie. After flubbing his point shot, he had the Canucks’ clearing attempt bounce off him.
“I whiffed on the pass to Johnny [Gaudreau] and then the dump hit my hand, and I didn’t really see where it went at first,” the Flames defenceman said. “He had a breakaway and I just tried to get back and try to get a stick on the puck.”
That’s where the game slipped away, Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said.
“Today was a game of critical moments, critical saves,” said Gulutzan. “Up 3-2 with two minutes to go in the second period, we’ve repeated it 1,000 times what it means to go into the third with the lead. We get a power play and we give up a shortie, that’s a tough one to give up.”