Photo Credit: Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports

Sometimes, you get out of a game and wonder how exactly it didn’t end up going much, much worse. Tonight was one of those games; despite penalty trouble and not a ton of goal support, the Canucks ended their road trip with an unlikely 2-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

To their credit, the Canucks maintained control of most of the first period. Brandon Prust set the tone with his fight against Mike Angelidis, and after the teams traded failed powerplays, Sven Baertchi picked up his fifth of the year with four minutes to go in the frame. It was a bit of a gimmie; a tap in front of the net that beat Ben Bishop, but you take every opportunity that you can get in a game like this.

Tampa Bay responded back in the final seconds of the second period. In a lot of ways, it was inevitable; the Canucks had taken their fifth consecutive penalty, and it was only a matter of time before such a heavily-armed team took advantage of the abundance of powerplays. Nobody quite expected that Jonathan Marchessault was going to be the triggerman, but it certainly brought the game to a head in the third period.

The final twenty minutes were controlled by Tampa Bay, who outshot the Canucks 10-3 in the third. But one of those shots, a slapshot by Daniel Sedin, had a bit of extra juice on it and ended up going top shelf against Bishop, and becoming the game-winning tally.

Despite this mess, Jacob Markstrom stood tall, stopping 26 of 27 shots. With Ryan Miller’s body suddenly somewhat broken, it’s important that Markstrom takes advantage of every opportunity he gets, and tonight was a good start.

Vintage Daniel Sedin right here. Set up by Henrik, and a well-placed blast into the top corner to send the crowd into confusion. I wish we saw that more often out of him; it’s been a while since it was commonplace.

The Marchessault goal doesn’t really have much to be upset with, but giving up ten powerplays?! A horrible night as far as discipline went. Specific shoutouts go to Yannick Weber for taking two of the infractions, and the bench for sending out too many men with two minutes left in the third period. As if this game didn’t need anything else to induce panic.

Time for a holiday break! The Canucks are off for a few days, returning to the ice on Saturday night against the Oilers. It’s a home game, meaning we get to see a 7 PM start time once again; as it should be.