Monday April 6 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - Los Angeles Kings 1 (S/O)
The stakes were high, the building was loud and for the most part, the game was terrific. The Vancouver Canucks took advantage of the Los Angeles Kings' poor record after 60 minutes to deliver their fans a 2-1 shootout win on Monday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
In my mind, the game went exactly according to plan. Spot the opposition that ugly first goal, then get down to business, score a late one and win it in the shootout. Piece o' cake.
Often, when the Kings get the lead the game can turn into a grind when they start keeping the puck to the outside and limiting the opposition's chances. After L.A. gave up just 10 shots to speedy Colorado last Saturday, I was concerned that our Canucks might be in for a similar fate.
The Kings dominated early, offensively—shots were up to 8-2 for the road team by the time Vancouver killed off Yannick Weber's holding penalty eight minutes into the game. But the Canucks gradually found their legs after that. By the end of 20 minutes, the shots were 15-14 for L.A.
After giving up Dwight King's ugly goal just 1:13 into the period, Eddie Lack shut the door the rest of the way—all the way through the shootout. He finished with 38 saves, many of them of the challenging variety, and was a perfect three-for-three against Carter, Kopitar and Gaborik in the skills competition—all with his mom on hand to beam with pride as a rowdy Rogers Arena chanted her son's name and showed the love:
Once again, after losing two straight games, the Canucks have been quick—and emphatic—in righting the ship. I think that's one of the reasons why I was cautiously optimistic about a win last night. Vancouver hasn't lost three in a row since January 8-13, when they lost at home to Florida (the Roberto Luongo return) and Calgary (the Joni Ortio 1-0 shutout loss) before falling 5-1 on the road to Nashville. Even after that rough stretch, they bounced back with three straight wins, starting with Ryan Miller's back-to-back shutouts in Philadelphia and Carolina.
As we wait to see when Miller declares himself to be game-ready, the debate will continue about which goalie should start in the playoffs. This is going to be a tough decision for loyal Willie: do you stick with Lack—the man who got you to this point by stepping up in a tough situation, or do you go back to your nominal No. 1, the (potentially rusty) $6-million man?
Yes, the Canucks' playoff odds are now 99.9 percent. With 97 points, they can clinch their playoff spot under a number of different scenarios tonight. The Kings have travelled to Edmonton to face the Oilers—who they destroyed by an 8-2 score last week at Staples Center—while Winnipeg visits St. Louis (5 p.m. start) and Calgary hosts Arizona at 6 p.m.
The Kings/Oilers game starts at 6:30 and will be shown on Sportsnet Pacific. To see the others, you'll need GameCentre Live or Centre Ice.
A couple of other notes about the game before we leave it in the rearview mirror:
• Though there were still some empty seats scattered around Rogers Arena, there's no doubt that the building was as loud and engaged as we've heard it in a long time—I'd say, dating back to the Canucks' 6-2 win over Boston in December of 2013, before the good ship Torts started to sink.
• The crowd was loud enough when it stood to applaud Henrik for his 700th career assist that the in-house DJs had to bail out of one of their favourite crowd-pleasers, Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer," to let the people carry the moment—which was well-deserved.
Henrik's no-look pass to his brother for Vancouver's third-period equalizer echoed a move that Radim Vrbata made last week, passing out from behind the net against the flow of the play and catching the defense by surprise. Let's watch that highlight again!
• When Vrbata failed to score in the shootout, I got a little worried. But Chris Higgins wiped away that worry in a hurry with a game-winner that earned plenty of style points of its own. The patience!!
• Refreshingly, the referees were not the main plotline on Monday night.
I nearly fell out of my seat when Matt Greene was whistled for holding against Alex Burrows midway through the third period on a ticky-tack play that the Kings seem to get away with hundreds of times a game.
Over the course of the night, the Kings took three penalties compared to two for Vancouver. Even though the tying goal didn't come on the power-play, it happened 20 seconds after Greene's penalty expired, with the twins taking an extended shift after coming back out to finish the power play. Alex Edler was awarded the second assist even though he had changed by the time the goal was scored.
• The Canucks also matched the Kings hit-for-hit on Monday, ultimately besting L.A. by a margin of 18-17. Ronalds Kenins was back in the lineup in place of Sven Baertschi. He had two hits and two shots but was a minus-one on the night as the Horvat line got caught on that early goal. As he often does, Willie swapped Kenins for Derek Dorsett in the later stages of the game for a little bit of extra defensive muscle.
According to
SportsClubStats, the Canucks now have a 90 percent chance of finishing second in the Pacific and securing home-ice advantage. Who would have predicted that at the beginning of the year?
Their chance of playing Calgary in the first round now sits at nearly 62 percent.
It's still a dogfight between the Jets and the Kings for that final playoff spot, though Winnipeg currently holds a slight edge. Is it too much to hope that the Oilers might play their best game of the season against a tired L.A. team tonight??
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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