
After a solid win against the Jets rookies, the Vancouver Canucks had a prime opportunity to end the tournament with a winning record. All that was in their way were the Calgary Flames, a team whose results against Winnipeg and Edmonton were similar, if not lower scoring. It was bound to be a close game, and it did end up going to overtime, where Jake Virtanen roofed a sweet breakaway shot to end things on a high note.
This game didn’t start off in a particularly fantastic fashion, admittedly. Mackenze Stewart decided to drop the mitts with Hunter Smith, which sounded like a great idea at the time, but within seconds, Julien Proulx responded with an unassisted tally to give the Flames to lead. Seeing as Proulx scored just two goals in his last two QMJHL seasons, that wasn’t to be taken as a good sign.
This actually remained the only goal in the game until late in the third period, when Dane Fox knocked in his own rebound to tie things up. It was a very solid play by him; he created space along the wing, out-waited the defence, and had the presence of mind to not trail off immediately after shooting. The Canucks weren’t able to keep things tied up for the remainder of the period, however; miscommunication lead to a three-on-one that Morgan Klimchuk both started and finished.
The Canucks were desperate to tie the game once again, and midway through the third period, did just that. Jared McCann took advantage of a misplay by the Flames’ defence and chopped a puck up to Rodrigo Abols, and unsigned camp invite followed through to equalize the scoring. Evan McEneny made things a bit dramatic by taking a late-period penalty, but eventually, the game headed to overtime.
Let me tell you, three-on-three overtime is hectic and beautiful. It’s like watching beer league, except with a ridiculous talent curve. All the same, it has that ability for one loose puck to decide a team’s fate, and three and a half minutes in, Jake Virtanen found that puck. He used his elite speed to run it up the ice, and he beat Nick Schneider with a wrister to send the Canucks home with smiles on their faces.
Players of the Game
You can argue that the entire defensive corps looked better tonight than they did for the entire rest of the tournament, allowing just twenty-four shots against. Moreover, just fifteen of them came after the first period, while the Canucks took an additional eleven in the same time frame. They had their moments where they weren’t at their best (the Klimchuk Goal…), but generally, coverage was intelligent and aggressive at the same time, allowing for the offence to transition smoothly into the Calgary zones.
As well, big ups to Dane Fox, who shared the shot lead with Hunter Shinkaruk, putting five pucks on net and one of the into the back of it.
Play of the Game
You have to go with the overtime winner, don’t you? Virtanen shows incredible speed to get to this puck and scores the goal without losing much of his acceleration. Incredible control and a great way to end off the tournament.
Misplay of the Game
This looks like a pretty routine three-on-one, and its hard to point fingers at anybody who you can see for how they played it, but man, the line change that lead to this moment was awful. Poorly timed, and poorly executed – it almost cost the Canucks the game.