Vancouver Canucks vs Winnipeg Jets Post-Game: Canucks start slow and unable to complete the comeback
5 years ago
The Winnipeg Jets made their way to Vancouver for a Monday night affair against the hometown Canucks.
The team formerly known as the Atlanta Thrashers came out flying in the first period, stormed out to an early lead, bent but ultimately left the building with two points after a 6-3 win over the Canucks.
There was some good things, some bad things, and interesting things from the Canucks tonight. Ultimately, they clearly couldn’t compete with the Jets but hung around enough to make the game entertaining.
1st Period
With the Canucks riding a five-game losing streak into the night, there was hope that they might be able to get a jump on the Jets but 1:13 into the game, Jacob Markstrom with the bad giveaway
The play stabilized for a bit with Markstrom making a nice save on Mathieu Perreault. A mere four minutes into the game, Erik Gudbranson took a tripping penalty to put the lethal Jets powerplay out there. Although Winnipeg was unable to add to their lead with the man advantage, it was a shooting gallery with Markstrom making four saves on the penalty kill. At the conclusion of the power play and less than six minutes into the game, the Jets were outshooting the Canucks by a 10-1 margin.
The Canucks got their first chance on the man advantage with just over seven minutes gone. Guess who scored.
After the Pettersson tally, the Jets were still carrying the play in terms of shot but weren’t been given grade A chances. But with any Canucks game, it was short lived. Ben Hutton jumped up for an offensive chance but the Jets were able to recover and quickly transition with Mark Scheifele scoring on the rebound
That goal seemed to help open the floodgates as that lethal Jets powerplay made an appearance again and Kyle Connor picked the corner on Markstrom.
The Canucks got another powerplay to close out the frame and despite Hutton ringing the shot off the post, were unable to score.
After one frame, the Jets were up 3-1 in goals and 23-7 in shots.
2nd Period
The Jets continued to take it to the Canucks in terms of shot differential – leading that category by a 5-2 margin at the first commercial break of the second period.
Just past the 10-minute mark, Elias Pettersson and Ben Hutton got the wires crossed resulting in Connor finding Patrik Laine to put the Jets up 4-1.
A fight between Antoine Roussel and Brendan Tanev broke out as soon as the puck hit the ice after that goal. Roussel was given an extra two minutes for slashing and a ten-minute misconduct for the foray.
On the ensuing power play, Tyler Motte blocked the shot, gets the break, and cuts the lead to 4-2
Erik Gudbranson was able to poke the puck away from a Perreault later in the power play to preserve the two-goal deficit.
Credit to the Canucks, they just hung around despite giving up the big lead early. Their continued pressure on the forecheck paid off with a nice goal from Nikolay Goldobin
Despite giving up a 4-1 lead and being heavily outshot by the Jets (33-16 after two), the Canucks were able to claw back to a 4-3 game at the conclusion of the second frame.
3rd Period
The Canucks didn’t exactly come flying out the gate in the third period but did push to tie the game throughout the early parts of the frame.
Elias Pettersson was called for a slash to put the Jets back on the man advantage. It’s clear he didn’t agree with the call
The Canucks were able to kill it off with the Canucks getting some decent chances in the shift following the penalty. They were able to continue to hang around and keep pressuring the Jets despite being losing in the shot totals for the game.
The line of Goldobin, Pettersson and Jake Virtanen had a fantastic shift with around seven minutes left in the period. They weren’t able to bury the biscuit but there was some noticeable excitement in the building.
Unfortunately, the hockey gods were not having it on this night and with just under six minutes left in the game, the Jets stuck again to reclaim a two-goal lead:
Tyler Motte had a fantastic chance with three minutes left but was unable to beat the Jets goaltender. The Canucks continued to press but was unable to overcome the deficit. Patrik Laine completed the hat-trick with an empty-net tally and the Jets left Vancouver with a 6-3 victory on this Monday night.
Stats
Notes
- Goldobin and Pettersson continue to play extremely well. Some of these games have been tough to watch but those two make every night interesting. Their ability to control the puck is really something.
- Jake Virtanen didn’t have as much as an impact as those two but he played a solid game overall.
- Ben Hutton had an up and down game but made a noticeable impact over the night. Obviously, his miscue with Pettersson led to a goal against but the sum of his play tonight was noteworthy. There is also no reason to take him off that first powerplay unit any time soon.
- Although the Canucks ended up losing tonight, I think fans can be satisfied with their compete. Despite falling down 4-1 fairly early, they hung around and almost rallied back.
- The goaltending wasn’t great but the Canucks aren’t going to win many games giving up 49 shots.
- Canucks have now lost six games in a row.
