Los Angeles Kings vs Vancouver Canucks Post Game Recap: Boeser’s Back!

5 years ago

The Rundown

The Vancouver Canucks got some great news before their game tonight versus the Los Angeles Kings. Brock Boeser was deemed healthy enough to play. With Boeser in the lineup, the Canucks looked to take advantage versus a Kings team fresh off a rebound win of their own in their last game. Willie Desjardins also made his first return to Vancouver since being fired by the team.

1st Period

Jakob Markstrom, fresh off a win in his last outing, would have to stand tall in this game early on. Only a minute in, and Tyler Toffoli picked up a loose puck past Ben Hutton and forced Markstrom to make a nice early stop. A minute and a half after, Chris Tanev would play the puck into the stands for a delay of game minor penalty, which sent the Kings to their first man advantage of the game.

The Canucks foil the Kings power-play chance, and just a few short moments after the Canucks got back to 5 on 5, the Canucks’ Alex Biega made a beautiful pass to Antoine Roussel, who’d be stoned on the shot by the arm of Calvin Peterson.

The Canucks would carry the play for the next few minutes, but around the 8 minute mark the Kings would get some quality scoring chances of their own. First, it was Matt Luff who came down the wing and fired a shot on Markstrom, who’d make the save. Some time later, Jeff Carter would find himself at the top of the slot and ripped a shot that Markstrom was able to snag out of the air with his glove.

12 minutes in, and one of the highlights of the game was fluffed by Vancouver… Alex Biega had the rush of his life, as he blazed through the neutral zone and found a wide open Loui Eriksson who had a wide open net, but Eriksson shot the puck into a sprawled Peterson to keep the game scoreless.

The Canucks would see themselves get their first power-play chance of the game 16 minutes in, when Elias Pettersson was held by Austin Wagner. The boys in blue had a pretty strong power-play, highlighted by a Pettersson one timer and a beautiful Boeser wrist shot, but no goals and the teams would head to the 2nd period deadlocked at 0’s.

2nd Period

20 seconds into the period, and the Canucks would be given their 2nd power-play of the game. Carter was called for a hook, and the Canucks would get back to work with a man advantage. Unfortunately, the hometown team didn’t have as great a power-play as their 1st one, and would fail to convert.

Markstrom would be relied upon again 3 minutes into the 2nd frame. After making a strong pad stop on a Carter slap shot, he’d have to follow that up with a desperation stretch save with his pad on Paul LaDue to keep the game tied.

Some magic from Pettersson nearly opened the score 6 minutes in. After Pettersson dangled his way through the slot, Boeser unleashed a killer backhand blast by Peterson, but not the post… Oh so close…

After some strong back and forth play, it would be the Kings who’d take the lead 11 minutes into the 2nd period. After the Kings won a battle in the corner, the puck squirted to a wide open Alex Iafallo, who unleashed a cannon past a screened Markstrom to pot his 5th goal of the year.

Not long after the goal, Biega would interfere with Anze Kopitar to give the Kings their 2nd power-play of the game 12:30 minutes in. Like before, the Canucks penalty kill doesn’t give Los Angeles any quality chances, and force the Kings to 0-2 on their power-play. Biega decided to give the Kings their 3rd power-play late in the period after he tripped his man, but the best chance to end the period was Roussel short handed, but alas, he was stopped on the doorstep by Peterson. The Kings would lead the Canucks by 1 as both teams got ready for the 3rd.

3rd Period

The King’s power-play had 30 seconds to start the period with the hope to extend their lead, but couldn’t even get themselves a shot with the man advantage, and saw their power-play drop to 0 for 3.

Would be a while before another quality scoring chance, but Roussel found himself with another tap in chance that was again thwarted by the Los Angeles netminder. Rough night for Roussel around the Kings goal.

The domination by Vancouver would continue, and 9 minutes in Michael Del Zotto unleashed a howitzer that went wide of the goal. What’s notable about this is that Peterson cheated on the shot, if only Del Zotto hit the net…

As the period progressed, the Canucks kept up the pressure. 13 minutes into the frame and Peterson would have to make another incredible stop, this time on Bo Horvat. Then, the Canucks would see Elias Pettersson do this, and my jaw dropped.

Finally, after a fantastic period for Vancouver, they would tie the game. Markus Granlund would deflect a Biega shot in front after he won a puck battle in the corner to tie the game with only 3:43 to go.

This game would see the 3rd period clock run out with the score tied. These teams would head to overtime.

Overtime

Would be a quick overtime frame, as only 53 seconds in and Dustin Brown would bang home a rebound which gave the Kings the 2-1 win over the Canucks… Tough break for Vancouver, but they weren’t able to gain possession of the puck at all in the extra frame.

Advanced Stats

Both advanced stats photo’s courtesy of naturalstattrick.com

Wrap Up

In a game like this, there was a lot to like from the Canucks perspective on the defensive side of the puck, and in Markstrom’s play. The offense struggled to find the back of the net, but that was in large part due to some fantastic goaltending on the other side of the ice. Brock Boeser getting into tonight’s game was a nice bonus, but don’t be surprised if it takes another couple weeks for him to get going. Once Boeser re-finds his form, look out because him and Pettersson are going to light up the league. Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette didn’t get as much ice time as I’d like to see, but Virtanen played a large part in the equalizing goal. We’ll see how the Canucks fare against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

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