CANUCKS ANXIOUS TO SQUELCH FLAMES
And end an epic losing streak — B1
VANCOUVER — Life in Vancouver has felt a little unnatural for Calgary Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom this week.
After spending seven seasons with the Canucks, for the first time he hit the ice at Rogers Arena as an opponent on Thursday.
“I think before tonight, this is the only (room) I hadn’t been in — the visitor room,” Markstrom said. “It’s weird to land and take the bus, staying at a hotel when it’s been home for so long.”
The Swedish netminder wasted no time making himself comfortable, regardless.
He stopped all but one of the 34 shots the Canucks peppered him with Thursday night, leading the Flames to a 3-1 victory against his former team. One of Markstrom’s best saves of the night came midway through the second period when he robbed Nils Hoglander of a goal. Vancouver’s rookie winger sniped a shot from the top of the face-off circle and the goalie snatched the puck out of the air.
“He battled for us all night. He kept us in there at times and he made some big saves,” said Calgary’s Sean Monahan. “When your goalie’s doing that, it gives you some jump and gives you a real good chance to win games.”
Facing a hot goaltender can get into a forward’s head, he added.
“When you’re playing against a goalie like that, sometimes you start overthinking and you try to make an extra pass to get a better look and it starts to get frustrating,” he said. “Marky’s a great goalie and I’m really happy he’s on our team.”
Monahan registered a pair of assists on the night, and helped give his side some breathing room early in the third.
The centreman came out of the penalty box to collect the puck in the neutral zone, and dished it to Johnny Gaudreau.
Gaudreau hustled down the ice on a breakaway and popped a shot up past Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko glove side to put Calgary up 3-1.
Mark Giordano had a goal and an assist in the win, while Andrew Mangiapane also scored for Calgary (7-5-1).
Despite the final result, the Canucks (6-110) came out hard and fast, looking to snap an extended losing skid.
“They came out flying, literally,” Markstrom said. “They play such a fast game and in the first period, we didn’t really find our legs at the start, but overall, I thought we kept them to shots from the outside and stuff like that, letting me see the puck.
“They’re a desperate team and they played a great game today. We’re happy we got away with the two points.”
Vancouver’s lone goal came 6:31 into the second period. Elias Pettersson deftly stick handled around Milan Lucic and slid a slick pass up the boards to Brock Boeser, who put a backhanded shot on net.
Markstrom stopped the first puck, but Boeser collected his own rebound and shovelled it in behind the goalie’s skate to knot the score at 1-1.
The Canucks outshot the Flames 34-26 on Thursday, but ultimately saw their losing streak stretch to six games.
“It’s frustrating. Everyone in our group, everyone in the locker room just wants to win a game and get back at it because we know what we’re capable of, but like I said, it’s not going our way right now, but we’ll figure it out,” he said.
A couple of unlucky bounces were what made the difference Thursday night, said Canucks coach Travis Green.
“As much as you hate losing, our guys are smart enough to know they played a pretty good hockey game,” he said.
“They know if we bring that came to the table, you’re going to win more than you lose. You’re not gonna win every game when you play well, that’s just the way the league is, the league is too good. But I’m comfortable our guys know that if they bring that type of effort, good things are gonna happen.”
Thursday’s game was the first in a fourgame set between the Canucks and Flames. The two teams are to square off again in Vancouver tonight.
CALGARY — Greg Ewasko will be an expert on curling bubble life by the time he’s done tending Calgary’s ice.
The icemaker from Oakbank, Man., will spend 52 days making ice for four Curling Canada events at WinSport’s Markin MacPhail Centre.
Add in time he’s spending to transform a hockey rink into a curling venue before the Feb. 19 start of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, that’s 63 straight days on the road.
Curling Canada is holding the national women’s, men’s and mixed doubles championships, and men’s world championship in a controlled, spectator-free environment at one site in order to have a curling season and avoid spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Ewasko is accustomed to managing ice in multiple events in one season, but never all in one arena.
“Usually by now I have five events underneath my belt and it’s kind of let’s roll into the next one,” he told The Canadian Press.
“The nerves are there. Just getting it done and making sure we can get it all done. It’s good that nerves are there. It means I’m here for the right reasons.
“It’s very important to Curling Canada and obviously to the athletes to get this off and running.”
The Tournament of Hearts Feb. 19-28 will be followed by the Tim Hortons Brier March 5-14, the Home Hardware Canadian mixed doubles curling championship March 18-25, and the BKT OK Tire men’s world championship April 2-11.
Ewasko, 44, says he’ll head home to Manitoba to spend time with his wife and two teenage sons after the men’s world championship, but it seems he can’t get enough of curling ice.
He intends to return to Calgary to help out with a pair of Grand Slams scheduled for the spring.
Ewasko’s wife Monique underwent radiation treatment in October for a recurring cancer.
“We found out some good news that the
radiation did start to break up the three cancer cells or spots that were starting to grow again,” Ewasko said.
“”Everybody’s OK. If we would have got the reverse news I wouldn’t have been here.”
Curling ice requires constant monitoring and maintenance to keep curlers happy and produce crowd-pleasing shots.
No spectators in the building altering the indoor climate takes a variable out of the icemaking equation.
“There’s not going to be any kind of heat load from five thousand people being in there,” he said. “Controlling the building is going to be way easier.”
But there will be the extra task of sanitizing every rock handle before each draw, which is 64 rocks if all four sheets are in use.
Ewasko and his crew are required to be masked and distanced from each other on the job.
As the curlers will do, ice crew members had to have a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of departing for Calgary, and produce another upon arrival.
“I had had two people back out because they didn’t think after our team meeting that we had a week and a half ago, that wearing masks and being part of the whole bubble was
not going to be right for them,” Ewasko said.
“It was a little bit of a scramble there last week. Had to fill one more spot.”
There’s the spectre of more scrambling, should someone test positive for the virus and be forced to isolate.
“I have a few backup plans in place just in case something out of the normal happens,” Ewasko said. “You’d call that normal now.”
The Markin MacPhail Centre is no stranger to elite curling. It was the site of the 2015 Continental Cup of Curling, pitting Canadians against Europeans in a Ryder-Cup style of competition.
An icemaker’s nirvana is generating consistent ice conditions day in and day out so the curlers will attempt difficult shots with confidence.
Ewasko wants to carry predictable ice through to men’s world championship final April 11.
“There’s a little bit of pressure,” he admitted. “Probably the biggest fear that I have is I can’t make it the same for the four events. I won’t sleep until I accomplish it.
“That’s my biggest worry, that the ice surface and the events are going to be different. I don’t want that. I want them to be as perfect as possible.”