Friday April 17 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Calgary Flames 1
Best-of-seven series tied 1-1
The Vancouver Canucks came out like a fireball and rode their early momentum to a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Friday night at Rogers Arena. Here are your highlights:
The end of the game was a throwback to a certain line brawl from last season which evoked plenty of memories of the coach who must not be named and his disdain for the coaching style of Calgary's Bob Hartley, but it was Willie Desjardins' Canucks who set the physical tone early.
Vancouver had already laid out five hits before Daniel Sedin opened the scoring just 2:56 into the game—all before Calgary recorded a single shot on goal.
In fact, the Flames didn't get their first shot of the game until the 6:34 mark, while they were killing a penalty. When Chris Higgins scored what proved to be the game-winning goal on that same power play at 7:06, the shots were 11-1 for Vancouver.
The game was much more even for the remaining 53 minutes, but that hot start was enough for the Canucks to pocket the win on Friday night and end that awful seven-game playoff home losing streak—even with Mark Donnelly still at the mic for "O Canada."
Riding the elevator out of Rogers Arena after the game, I could hear the chants of "Eddie! Eddie!" on the other side of the doors. It happened on the street outside on the way home too.
The affable Swede added to his legend in a big way on Friday night—being the goaltender of record for that first home win since Game 5 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, shutting the door on the Flames for 56:26, and sticking up for himself with a few blocker punches after some crease-crashing by Brandon Bollig.
I swear, I think I could see Eddie's eyes flashing from the other end of the rink as he skated defiantly away from the crease to a roar from the crowd after unleashing his inner fury. I loved seeing him stick up for himself.
We may think that kind of anger is uncharacteristic, but apparently Lack and Bollig have a long history. From Jason Botchford's
Provies:
“He kinda choked me for a while there, and I wanted to get in a couple of punches,” Lack said.
“Me and Bollig have been going at it for years, I feel like, from the minors and everything.”
Lack, in fact, said the incident helped get him going after a first period in which he felt “very nervous” because he was “just standing there.
That tends to happen when you see three shots in 20 minutes of a playoff game.
Lots of time to worry.
On his throwdown with Bollig:
“It actually got me going, to be honest. I felt good after that.”
Botchford also mentions that Eddie and the team's other fiery Swedish goalie prospect, Jacob Markstrom, like to wrestle each other.
Lack said he wrestles Markstrom all the time and it’s pretty close. He gives Markstrom the edge in a possible fight, but thinks it would be “real close.”
Lack has definitely played well enough to stay in net for the foreseeable future—no matter how Ryan Miller is feeling. He's growing more and more popular by the day. The sky's the limit if he can deliver a playoff series win.
Kevin Bieksa was at his best after the game, delivering
bon mots even though he could barely speak.
On the brouhaha at the end of the game:
And this:
And this:
Bieksa may get his wish, because it looks like manchild who replaced Raymond in the Calgary lineup, Sam Bennett, has been injured in his second playoff game.
Bennett disappeared after playing an 11 second shift with 5:39 left in the second period.
He did come back and play two shifts around the five-minute mark of the third, then one more right after Calgary scored to make it 3-1 and was pressing for the comeback. Not surprising that he wouldn't have been out there after the empty-netter, when the Flames changed their m.o., but it'll be interesting to see if he's fit to play in Game 3 on Sunday.
After such a wild night, I'm not surprised to hear that the Canucks have cancelled their Saturday practice. They will hold court with the media before hopping on their plane to Calgary this afternoon, so we could get some more interesting quotes at that time.
Rather amusingly, there's not a word about the game-ending brawl on the NHL.com home page this morning, so I'm assuming we won't see any supplemental discipline for Deryk Engelland and his three game misconducts, or for Dan Hamhuis' attempt to break up the fight between Engelland and Derek Dorsett.
Once more to Botchford, who says Hamhuis was actually recruited by the referees to help calm things down:
The way Dorsett explained it, it was the officials who invited Hamhuis into the fray at the end. They didn’t think they could control Engelland and, as the Canucks’ side goes, requested Hamhuis in there to help tie him up to try and reach a peaceful conclusion to the gong show.
They did this knowing Hamhuis is not a maniac. And he’s not.
Hamhuis, that Good Samaritan from Smithers who is no maniac, obliged, eventually helping to wrestle the savage beast to the ice.
Explains why Hamhuis was in there and didn’t throw a punch, doesn’t it?
Emotions are high now. Am I the only one who's already counting the minutes till Game 3 on Sunday?
In the meantime, we've got plenty of hockey to entertain us. Two afternoon contests get underway at noon today—Red Wings/Lightning and Blues/Wild. Pittsburgh and the Rangers face off for Game 2 at 5:00, then the Ducks and Jets continue their series at 7:30.
The four games are spread out on Sunday too, so we'll have a chance to watch everything if we're so inclined.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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