CanucksArmy Postgame: Canucks struggle at even strength as Blues win 3-2 in overtime

Bo and his boys were back in business battling the blues on a blistering Sunday night.

The St. Louis Blues were down 2-0 in the best of seven series and they needed to make some changes to their lineup as home swing swung in the Vancouver Canucks direction.

Sort of.

The Canucks had last change tonight and will be able to dictate the matchups tomorrow night as well. Fans were hoping this advantage in the matchup department would help get The Lotto Line going.

The big story for the Blues was that Jake Allen was patrolling the crease instead of Jordan Binnington. NHL dot com rated Binnington as the fourth-best goaltender going into the postseason. That aged well eh?

The other big news from the Blues lineup was that sniper Vladamir Tarasenko was not available for game three. This is a hit to the Blues’ powerplay units but Tarasenko has been pretty absent at 5-on-5 in this series.

The Canucks went with the same group of forwards that they used in games one and two because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Speaking of being broke, Tyler Myers’ bank account sure isn’t but his body is a bit as it’s estimated that he could miss seven to ten days with a separated shoulder — as reported by Matt Sekeres and Rick Dhaliwal of TSN 1040.

That meant that Jordie Benn drew into the lineup for the Canucks and played the right side with Oscar Fantenberg flanking him on the left side.

Benn has strong possession numbers when he plays on the right side and he is relied upon to kill penalties for Travis Green while rounding out the Canucks’ bottom pairing.

 

Jacob Markstrom started for the Canucks.

Let’s go!

The period was wide open 5-on-5 action for almost a full 20 minutes. This may be my shortest write up about a period ever because there really wasn’t a lot to report on.

The Canucks had one powerplay where they broke two sticks on.

The Blues came out and brought more physicality early, including a big Brayden Schenn hit on Quinn Hughes, who seemed to love the rough stuff; as the broadcast showed him smiling like a kid in a candy store a kid who is leading all defencemen in playoff points after absorbing the heavy hit.

The Blues landed a big hit on Chris Tanev later in the period and were being sure to finish their every check in the first 20 minutes of play.

Another quick tidbit about the first period was that Brock Boeser led all skaters in ice time with 7:55.

Let’s hope for more to talk about in the second!

Well, I got what I asked for.

The second period began with the Blues taking a too many men on the ice penalty as they had six skaters on the ice for about 10 seconds before the refs noticed. The Canucks went to work on the powerplay right away. This time they did not use a drop pass.

Instead of a drop pass, Hughes passed the puck up to Pettersson, who found JT Miller streaking in on the wing and he ripped a wrist shot over the glove of Allen.

Another point for Hughes and Pettersson and another goal for the Canucks powerplay unit. 1-0 Canucks.

Death, taxes and the Blues answering back in this series. The Blues defencemen began pinching on every shift and when Zack MacEwen misread a play, it left Justin Faulk wide open as he came down the right side and buried the puck past Markstrom. 1-1 after the Blues goal.

The Blues continued to pressure the Canucks at 5-on-5. They had a huge control of scoring chances at 5-on-5, out chancing the Canucks by a count of 26-11. This was bad news as 37:16 of the first 40 minutes played were at even strength.

The Blues attained their first lead of the series when David Perron scored late in the period.

He came in on the left wing, and fired it wide side over Markstrom’s glove-side shoulder. 2-1 Blues.

Markstrom has looked shaky at times when a player is in tight as we saw the Minnesota Wild put a couple past him and it seems the book is out about that because the Blues are trying a lot of shots from in tight.

Just over 30 seconds after the Perron goal the Canucks were able to tie things up.

Pettersson dangled around a sprawling Blues defencemen and absolutely sniped over Allen’s shoulder. 2-2 after the Pettersson goal.

We had a game on our hands and the Canucks were 20 minutes away from taking a stranglehold on the series.

Early on Perron got involved with Troy Stecher in the net and both players were given a penalty resulting in some 4-on-4 hockey.

The Canucks controlled the puck in the Blues’ zone for 90 seconds straight. This was their best 90 seconds of the period but they weren’t quite able to get one past Allen.

The Blues really took over for the remainder of the period.

Markstrom had to be great and he was. Once again I haven’t talked about him a lot so far in this game but he has been good when needed. He faced 12 shots and 13 scoring chances in the third period and saved them all. The Canucks are doing a good job of limiting the Blues high danger shots as they are giving them the outside attempts because Markstrom stops them all.

Markstrom needed to continue to be great in overtime.

The scariest moment of the period and possibly the game, came when Loui Eriksson took a high sticking penalty with exactly two minutes remaining in the period. The Canucks were able to kill off the Eriksson minor and this game headed into the thirteenth overtime game of the NHL playoffs so far.

Jake Virtanen was called for tripping late in the period after the Blues continued to control the possession through all four periods. The Canucks had another good kill and came out no worse for wear from the Virtanen penalty.

This didn’t last long as Quinn Hughes pinched in, threw a big hit and almost retrieved the puck. Unfortunately, he didn’t and the Blues capitalized and they threw the puck up ice to Schenn who got a step on Stecher and went in on a breakaway to roof the puck over Markstrom’s shoulder. 3-2 Blues final.

The Lotto Line were the top performers tonight. Pettersson had two points on the night, Miller had one and Brock Boeser led the team in CF% while being second in ice time out of the forwards. The Blues wore down The Lotto Line with Ryan O’Reilly and company but with the last change, the Canucks were able to get The Lotto Line some offensive zone possession.

That added possession time in the offensive zone led to the trio combining for 12 shots on net. Pettersson had six, Miller had four and Boeser had two.

Jacob Markstrom looked like he was getting into a groove as the game went on. He played well enough for the Canucks to get a win but the team was absolutely caved in at 5-on-5, controlling only 36.81% of the attempted shots.

Troy Stecher was asked to do more tonight as the top four played a lot of hockey tonight. Four Canucks defencemen were over 25 minutes and it looked like that wore on Stecher. He had a couple of tough plays this game after being absolutely outstanding in the previous five postseason games. Stecher was on the ice for 29 shots against and only eight shots for on Sunday night.

It was a bump in the road for the Canucks as they looked to take control of the series and now will be battling against a team that will be hungry to tie this series up at two.

The Lotto Line got away from the O’Reilly matchup and that was good for them at 5-on-5, the problem was that all the other Canucks lines were not able to control the puck in the Blues’ zone for an extended amount of time.

Horvat took some of the blame in his postgame availability saying that he needs to shoot the puck more and be better. Horvat also mentioned on multiple occasions that he is very happy that they play tomorrow as his team will be ready.