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Brock Boeser steals the show with 1st career hat trick in win over Penguins |
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Saturday November 4 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Pittsburgh Penguins 2
The cheering in Rogers Arena was so loud after Brock Boeser's hat-trick goal that I couldn't hear the whistle that ended the next play.
It has been a long time since that happened!
Boeser showed that he knows what it takes to beat Matt Murray as the Vancouver Canucks skated to an impressive 4-2 win over the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions.
Here are your highlights:
Boeser picked a great night for his standout performance—a Hockey Night in Canada game against the high-profile Penguins.
That'll help a Western Conference player get noticed as a legitimate Calder Trophy candidate.
With an assist to go along with his three goals, Boeser's now up to a team-leading 13 points—despite having played just 10 games. That also moves him into sole possession of second place in the rookie scoring race, but his 1.30 points per game is tops among all rookies. Clayton Keller of Arizona scored his 10th goal of the year last night and is up to 16 points in 15 games, but he's also a minus-eight. Boeser and his linemates Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi all finished up last night as plus-fours, which makes Boeser plus-one so far on the season.
Also impressive—the line did the bulk of its damage against Penguins stars Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang, who both ended up minus-three for the night. Crosby did get one assist—on a gorgeous power-play goal early in the first period that made me think the Canucks were going to be utterly humbled by the Pens.
The goal, at 2:53, came after Jacob Markstrom had already been bailed out from his 'first shot—first goal' pattern thanks to a goal-line save by Chris Tanev in the first minute of the game. And just 17 seconds after Guentzel's goal, Pittsburgh went back on the power play, but the group wasn't able to recreate the same tic-tac-toe puck control of its first man advantage.
Boeser's first of the night tied the game at 7:07, and the Canucks didn't trail again.
Just as impressive as Boeser's nose for the net is the hockey sense that he showed in creating his opportunities on Saturday night. His goals were all different and showed a patient player who was making smart decisions with the puck—at least up till the moment that he dished to Tanev in the dying seconds instead of trying to add a fourth goal in the empty net.
Credit to Markstrom, as well, for keeping the win within reach. The Penguins outshot the Canucks 39-21 on the night and Markstrom stopped some point-blank chances.
Kessel led the Penguins with six shots on goal, despite missing the last 5:24 of the second period after hitting his head on the ice.
The Penguins were also without defenseman Frank Corrado for 12 minutes in the middle frame after he failed to brace himself for a hit from the freight train known as Derek Dorsett.
I'd been watching Corrado on this shift after realizing I hadn't noticed him in the first period. The hit was shoulder-to-shoulder but he definitely took the worst of it.
Tanev was looking very concerned for his former teammate as he was helped off the ice, but Corrado did return to the game before the end of the second period. He got two pretty decent shots on goal in the third and finished with 9:50 of ice time....
...and that's more than Jake Virtanen, or the Sedins.
With the game on the line, Daniel and Henrik played just two shifts in the third period, and Jake played one. Henrik went 5-for-6 in the faceoff circle but finished with just 8:52 of ice time. Daniel had one shot on goal in the first period and played 8:38. Virtanen was probably the most prominent of the three—I noticed his hustle a couple of times, and he finished with two shots, a takeaway and a block, which is pretty impressive for only 6:19 of ice time.
Travis Green had praised the Sedins for their game against the Devils on Wednesday, when Daniel played 17:01 and Henrik was over 16 minutes, so it's all about matchups for the new coach. For a good chunk of the third period, he basically emulated what Ken Hitchcock did the other night and stuck with two units, alternating the Horvat and Brandon Sutter lines. The Canucks were outshot 13-4 in the third period but outscored the Penguins 2-1—and that was the difference in the game.
Now in the midst of a three-in-four set of games, the Canucks are holding a limited practice today at Rogers Arena. They'll finish off their homestand on Monday against Detroit before playing the Flames in Calgary on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Utica, Richard Bachman picked up the W and Nikolay Goldobin scored the shootout winner as the Comets earned their first home win of the season on Saturday.
Goldy also scored his fifth of the year on the power play and Anton Rodin was not only in the lineup—he scored his first goal.
Off the rush! His skating looks good there.
Brendan Gaunce finished off his AHL conditioning stint with no points, but four shots on goal against the Amerks. He's scheduled to re-join the Canucks this week but with Thatcher Demko on the roster while Anders Nilsson awaits the birth of his new baby, there's no extra roster spot currently available. I imagine the first move will be to re-assign extra forward Jayson Megna to Utica, then move Patrick Wiercioch back down when Alex Edler is ready to come back into the lineup.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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