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Tyler Myers plays hero as Canucks edge Rangers; medal day at World Juniors |
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Saturday January 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - New York Rangers 1
The Vancouver Canucks kept pace with their Pacific Division rivals as they stretched their winning streak to seven games with a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
As I crunched the numbers for my game preview on Saturday, I figured we'd be in for another high-scoring affair, not unlike Vancouver's 7-5 win over Chicago on Thursday.
That seemed like a reasonable projection when Antoine Roussel opened the scoring with his first point in five games, just 1:46 into the first period. Though the Rangers have essentially been splitting goaltending duties, Alexandar Georgiev was a bit of a surprise starter, earning the nod because Henrik Lundqvist was said to be under the weather.
The goal came after an icing call against Vancouver. When Bo Horvat won the defensive-zone draw, Tanner Pearson was able to change for Roussel as the play moved down the ice. From there, Horvat did some nice work along the boards before getting the puck to the front of the net. Loui Eriksson put a sneaky redirect on net before Roussel banged home the rebound.
The time has come to acknowledge that Eriksson has been pretty effective since he stepped onto the second line after Josh Leivo was injured against Vegas on December 19. Eriksson had limited impact in his first game against Pittsburgh, playing just 9:49, but since then his ice time has been well into the double digits, he has posted 11 shots, and he has a goal and two assists in those five games, where he has also been a plus-six.
Game by game, Eriksson's confidence seems to be growing. He's involved in the action and making smart plays. Is this the best we've seen him since he joined the Canucks?
The Canucks started winning consistently last month when they figured out how to start better. Saturday's game was the eighth-straight time they scored the first goal, while the Rangers have been having terrible first periods on their current road trip. But unlike their games earlier this week in Alberta, the Rangers were able to stop the bleeding quickly against Vancouver.
Pavel Buchnevich tied the game just before the eight-minute mark when he picked himself up after a big bodycheck by Alex Edler and went to the front of the net, where he was unguarded as he converted a feed from Chris Kreider, who had stripped Chris Tanev of the puck along the boards.
But just like we saw when the Rangers peppered Jacob Markstrom with rubber as they tried unsuccessfully to complete a third-period comeback against Vancouver at Madison Square Garden back in October, the Blueshirts generated plenty of scoring chances once again on Saturday. At the end of the first period, shots were 15-7 for the Rangers, but the score remain tied. Vancouver had three unsuccessful power-play tries and outshot New York 14-8 in a seemingly low-event second. In the third, the Rangers got back to controlling the play, but it was Tyler Myers who broke the deadlock with 1:29 left to play, with a quick floater from the blue line that evaded Georgiev and kept the Canucks' winning streak alive.
The goal came against the flow of the play. And for Canucks fans who have seen so many games slip away late over the years and decades, perhaps it's symbolic that things really are different now? That this group can keep it close, then find a way to win?
I also thought it was interesting that in the battle of the former Winnipeg Jets teammates, it was the oft-maligned Myers that came through with the game-winner, his third goal and fourth point in his last three games, while the Rangers' Jacob Trouba had a busy night with nine shot attempts, four blocks and two hits in a team high 24:34 of ice time but finished the game with no points and a minus-one.
Myers does make miscues from time to time, but it seems like he's establishing a meaningful role for himself on this team.
Once again, a Canucks game wrap-up isn't complete without more praise for Jacob Markstrom, who was a wall once again in the face of some good pressure from the Rangers. Dressed in the '90s black skate jersey, I found myself getting nervous early in the game when Markstrom went down to cover the bottom part of the net. Apparently I haven't let go of the memories of just how much Kirk McLean embodied that era's 'stand-up' goaltending style.
Markstrom did pay homage to McLean, though, with an old-school two-pad stack to stop Trouba.
That capped off a night that saw the team and its fans pay tribute to former owner Arthur Griffiths, the late Pat Quinn's daughter Kalli, and '94 teammates McLean, Jyrki Lumme, Dave Babych, Cliff Ronning, Greg Adams and the crowd favourite, Gino Odjick.
With Vegas, Arizona and Edmonton all winning on Saturday as well, the Canucks' two points just allowed them to keep pace with their division rivals. They have games in hand, but remain in third place in the Pacific as they head for sunny Florida on to kick off their road trip against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday — four points behind the division-leading Golden Knights, two points back of Arizona and one point ahead of Edmonton.
As successful as they've been over the last seven games, all they've accomplished so far is keeping themselves in the mix. They'll need more points on this five-game road trip, which starts with the two Florida teams before heading north to Buffalo, Minnesota and Winnipeg.
If you have a little extra time today, I'd definitely recommend this new Big Read from Sportsnet, which gives us a glimpse behind the curtain at Elias Pettersson's childhood in small-town Sweden and a friendship that shaped his character and his outlook on the world.
And as for World Juniors — the puck will drop soon for the gold-medal game as I type this.
Earlier, Nils Hoglander returned to the Swedish lineup and made a terrible giveaway that allowed Finland to take a 2-1 lead late in the first-period of the bronze-medal game.
He atoned by setting up linemate Samuel Fagemo once again for the tying goal as Sweden went on to win 3-2 and capture bronze, leaving defending champion Toni Utunen and the rest of the Finnish team heading home without any hardware this year.
Heading into the gold-medal game, Fagemo leads all scorers with 13 points, and Hoglander is tied for second with 11. That could change by the time Canada/Russia is complete, but Craig Button is reporting that Hoglander has been named to the tournament's second all-star team.
Canada's last gold came two years ago in Buffalo, when the Canadians beat Elias Pettersson and the Swedes — and some the Swedes infamously threw their silver medals into the crowd. Funnily enough, Russia's last gold was also in Buffalo — in that dramatic 2011 tournament that saw Artemi Panarin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vladimir Tarasenko drop the hammer in a third period comeback that saw the Russians erase a 3-0 Canadian lead on the way to a 5-3 win.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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