Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
The Canucks started this game fine, but the Wild began to stack shifts in the offensive zone and had the Canucks running around in a bit of a track meet early.
Kevin Lankinen made some key saves, Elias Pettersson (the forward) had a big shot block, and Tyler Myers dove to stop what likely would have been a sure goal.
Tyler Myers gets his stick on the puck at the last second preventing a Minnesota goal.
The Canucks got the game’s first power play when Drew O’Connor was hauled down at the Minnesota line. The Canucks’ first unit was about as loaded up as it could have been, but it was obviously still missing Quinn Hughes. They did not score.
The Canucks got a second power play chance, and this time, Pettersson built upon his strong game against the Ducks, letting go of a vintage Pettersson one timer to give the Canucks the game’s first lead.
🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨
Elias Pettersson blasts a one timer to the back of the net to open the scoring!
The Canucks entered the second period up by a goal.
The second opened with Elias Pettersson blasting another one-timer, only this one — at 91 miles per hour — missed the net wide. The Pettersson line again came close to bolstering the Canucks lead, with a solid zone entry from Kiefer Sherwood followed by a near miss from Pettersson, who had a nose for the net early in this one.
Elias Pettersson makes a couple nice moves. Somehow the puck stays out of the Minnesota net.
The middle frame was defined by sloppy play from both sides, leading to relatively low-event hockey. Victor Mancini, making his Rogers Arena debut, made a sharp defensive play to sweep a trickling puck out of the Canucks’ goal crease with his skate.
Things started to tighten up a but after this. Late in the period, Yakov Trenin slashed Marcus Pettersson’s stick, giving the Canucks their third power play of the game and a prime chance to push their lead to two.
Filip Hronek and Pettersson played catch before Pettersson fed the puck down low to DeBrusk, who found Garland for a tap-in that Filip Gustavsson made a huge save on.
Jake DeBrusk makes a nice pass to Conor Garland open at the side of the net but he can't beat the Minnesota goaltender.
The Canucks power play didn’t stop there, generating more quality looks to close out the period. Again though, Gustavsson stood tall.
As a result, the Canucks entered the third up by just a single goal.
Filip Hronek was called for tripping, giving the Wild their second power play of the game early in the third. Lankinen made some phenomenal saves after an unfortunate stick break for Tyler Myers extended the Wild’s zone time. Eventually, the Canucks broke, as Brock Faber tied this one up after far too much east-west movement.
The Wild really hunkered down on defence, limiting what the Canucks were able to create as soon as they hit the neutral zone. As a result, the Canucks fell behind on the shot chart, iced the puck a bunch, and did their best to bend but not break.
The Canucks went against the run of play, after some solid work from Nils Höglander to extend the Canucks’ zone time. Filip Hronek found Kiefer Sherwood, who made no mistake.
Teddy Blueger added an empty net goal to put the finishing touches on this one.
3-1 Canucks final.
Some more takeaways from tonight:
-Funny enough, I know he scored a goal in this game and that it is certainly another building block for him to turn his game around, but I thought Pettersson was better against Anaheim than he was tonight. Go figure that he didn’t get a point in that game but opened the scoring in convincing fashion tonight. Two strong games in a row for Pettersson. Now let’s raise the bar and see games like this become the norm for him, as they once were.
-A very strong start for Kevin Lankinen, who has had some great games since signing his extension.
-Victor Mancini and Jonathan Lekkerimäki both strike me as a bit raw, but they’re no-doubt gaining valuable experience in these games.
-Elias Pettersson (the defenceman) is looking better and better. He’s holding his own playing alongside Filip Hronek on the top pair.
-Another great game for Hronek, who is picking up the slack in Hughes’s absence.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!
And be sure to tune into the Rink Wide Vancouver post game show LIVE on YouTube moments after the final horn!
