Vancouver’s losing skid stretches to five games after Habs score late
With two of the league’s high scoring teams in action Saturday at Rogers Arena, you figured this would be a thriller.
The last home game for Vancouver was a thriller. Why not more, right?
Except, the Montreal Canadiens and Canucks had other plans. With both NHL teams giving away little in the middle of the ice and the puck being unwilling to slide flat too often, there wasn’t much action to be had for long stretches, even as the visitors pulled out a late 3-2 victory.
Current hockey lingo is seeing players and coaches compare the game to works of art. They seem to trend toward Picasso as being the pinnacle, which is somewhat ironic since his style is not known as being terribly orderly.
This game was definitely not a Picasso, but not because of confusion of how art is defined, rather because it was more like watching the paint on your fence dry at times.
The scoring chances were a rarity for much of the game, albeit things picked up in the third period. Defensively, both teams did well to keep each other’s attack to the outside. The Canadiens were especially successful at breaking up the Canucks’ rushes, and the home team struggled for much of the night to gain the offensive zone with puck possession.
Canucks coach Travis Green was proud of how his team performed and was frustrated with the late loss. “It’s a hard game to lose,” he said. Both goalies, Jacob Markstrom for the Canucks and Carey Price for the Canadiens, have had rough starts to the year but both proved to be steady customers in their respective creases. Markstrom made 28 saves, Price 34.
Montreal opened scoring 8:07 into the second, when Tomas Tatar connected on a breakaway. He was sprung by a sublime, perfectly threaded pass by defenceman Jeff Petry from well inside the blue-line.
Canucks’ defenceman Michael Del Zotto tied the game 1-1 just over eight minutes later, banging in a puck from the side of the net.
Elias Pettersson put his team ahead on a third-period powerplay goal, while a fluke Andrew Shaw tally tied the game 2-2 just a minute later.
The game winner came with 2:44 left in the game, a power-play marker by Jonathan Drouin that handed the Canucks their fifth consecutive loss. Del Zotto was parked in the penalty box, having taken an interference penalty seconds before for the late hit he threw on Montreal rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi.