Last night the Canucks and Red Wings squared off in the 3rd meeting this season at Rogers Arena. It was a game not to be missed. Going into this game Vancouver was 31-15-4, while Detroit was 34-15-4. Two very evenly matched teams. Chris HIggins was a late scratch meaning the Canucks dressed 7 defense, and 11 forwards. Detroit scored 1st with a beauty by Dany Cleary just after the 5 minute mark in the 1st but with 4 minutes left in the period Kevin Bieksa and David Booth were able to set up Ryan Kesler who tied up the game scoring his 15th goal of the season. Jiri Hudler scored the only goal for Detroit in the 2nd and it ended 2-1. Half way through the 3rd somehow with all of Alain Vigeault's line juggling he had 1st line left wing Alex Burrows skating with 4th line center Maxim Lapierre and they were able to tie up the game. It was a short lived tie when Drew Miller scored only his 9th of the season to give Detroit the lead again. But with less then 5 minutes to go in the 3rd Mason Raymond scored assisted by Sami Salo and Henrik and no Daniel Sedin was not on the ice at that time. Again in a weird twist of events Alain Vigeault skated the twins on different lines. The game went into a scoreless OT and shootout. Vancouver doesn't have the best track record at shootouts and it is not just Luongo, the Canucks shooters aren't always solid. Detroit on the other hand is extremely solid with a 6-0 record in the S/O this season. Being the home team, Vancouver chose to shoot 1st. Alex Edler went 1st and was denied by Jimmy Howard. Pavel Datsyuk got his past Lou but Mason Raymond was denied by Howard. Finally Jiri Hudler scored on Lou for a 4-3 finish. Vancouver picks up a point and probably the only reason they get that point is the phenomenal play of Roberto Luongo. Luongo made 40 saves last night, Howard only 22.
Another interesting game last night would have to be the 29th place Edmonton Oilers beating the 8th ranked team, the Chicago Blackhawks. In a 8-4 victory for Edmonton one player stole the show. Amazingly, Sam Gagner #89, picked up a point on all 8 goals, ending it with 4 goals and 4 assists. Chicago actually scored the first 2 goal and the 6th and 9th goal with Heart of the Week Patrick Sharp getting 2 goals alone but lets take a closer look at Edmonton's goals:
1st goal Taylor Hall, assisted by Sam Gagner
2nd goal Sam Gagner assisted by Jordan Eberle and Andy Sutton
3rd goal Ryan Whitney assisted by Sam Gagner on the power play
4th goal Sam Gagner assisted by Ryan Whitney and Jordan Eberle
5h goal Cam Baker assisted by Andy Sutton and Sam Gagner
6th goal Sam Gagner assisted by Taylor Hall and Corey Potter
7th goal Sam Gagner assisted by Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall
8th goal Jordan Eberle assisted by Sam Gagner and Taylor Hall
Do you see the theme forming here? After that night Gagner is tied with the all time leaders within the Edmonton Oilers franchise with 8 points in a single game. He will forever be in the same category as Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey. Let's not deny who else collected points. Jordan Eberle registered 4 and so did Taylor Hall. Ryan Whitney and Andy Sutton got 2 apiece. When Gagner scored his 1st goal of the night it was his 6th goal all season, meaning he only tallied 5 before. Now he almost doubled it last night to 9! Check out Gagner's personal highlight reel from last night in "If you Need a Visual" and also see him except all 3 Stars after the game!
In the other 6 games last night:
Boston lost to the Carolina Hurricanes for the 4th straight time this season. Final score 3-0 with Carloina scoring one every period. It is a bit of a head scratcher because Boston is big and tough and is 4th in the league and has 32 wins alone while Carolina is 27th in the league with only 19 wins all season! Go Carolina!
New Jersey beat Montreal 5-3. Montreal actually carried the lead the entire first 2 periods 'til New Jersey scored 3 goals in the 3rd period.
Philadelphia beat Nashville 4-1. Wayne Simmonds scored 2 goals alone.
Winnipeg beat Tampa Bay 2-1 in a OT. Former Canuck Kyle Wellwood scored the winner!
Minnesota scored the only goal 6 minutes into the 1st period in a 1-0 win over Colorado.
And finally San Jose beat Dallas 5-2. San Jose's usual suspects found the back of the net with Michal Handzus, Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Ryane Clowe scoring. Dallas's Jamie Benn and Steve Ott got their team on the board.
Tonight's Match Ups are:
New York Islanders vs Ottawa Senators at 4:30pm
Winnipeg Jets vs Florida Panthers at 4:30pm
Los Angeles Kings vs St. Louis Blues at 5:00pm
Chicago Blackhawks vs Calgary Flames at 6:00pm
Columbus Blue Jackets vs Anaheim Ducks at 7:00pm
One final hockey goal to think about may be Drew Doughty's goal with a second left in a tied game Wednesday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. You can check out the goal in "If You Need a Visual" watch it twice and the 2nd time keep your eye on the score clock, it freezes at 1.8 left on the clock for about 1/2 a second giving Doughty just enough time to score the goal. Now this might not seem like such a big deal to an outsider and in reality it means not much to Columbus who is the 30th and last place team in the league right now with 32 points in 51 games. But Los Angeles sits 7th in the western conference with 60 points. Had it gone into over time both teams would have collected a point and played for the bonus 2nd point. With the season 1/2 over teams are fighting for those extra points. Imagine the 8th and 9th place teams in the west are tied at the end of the season or 8th place Los Angeles has 1 more point then 9th place team unknown. Imagining this happens it would be that one point and win that could put the Kings into a playoff spot in a rather unfair way because of human error on the score clock and off ice officials in Toronto not seeing the clock freeze 'til it was to late. The ninth place finishing team would be out by default. Oh Hockey!
Another interesting game last night would have to be the 29th place Edmonton Oilers beating the 8th ranked team, the Chicago Blackhawks. In a 8-4 victory for Edmonton one player stole the show. Amazingly, Sam Gagner #89, picked up a point on all 8 goals, ending it with 4 goals and 4 assists. Chicago actually scored the first 2 goal and the 6th and 9th goal with Heart of the Week Patrick Sharp getting 2 goals alone but lets take a closer look at Edmonton's goals:
1st goal Taylor Hall, assisted by Sam Gagner
2nd goal Sam Gagner assisted by Jordan Eberle and Andy Sutton
3rd goal Ryan Whitney assisted by Sam Gagner on the power play
4th goal Sam Gagner assisted by Ryan Whitney and Jordan Eberle
5h goal Cam Baker assisted by Andy Sutton and Sam Gagner
6th goal Sam Gagner assisted by Taylor Hall and Corey Potter
7th goal Sam Gagner assisted by Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall
8th goal Jordan Eberle assisted by Sam Gagner and Taylor Hall
Do you see the theme forming here? After that night Gagner is tied with the all time leaders within the Edmonton Oilers franchise with 8 points in a single game. He will forever be in the same category as Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey. Let's not deny who else collected points. Jordan Eberle registered 4 and so did Taylor Hall. Ryan Whitney and Andy Sutton got 2 apiece. When Gagner scored his 1st goal of the night it was his 6th goal all season, meaning he only tallied 5 before. Now he almost doubled it last night to 9! Check out Gagner's personal highlight reel from last night in "If you Need a Visual" and also see him except all 3 Stars after the game!
In the other 6 games last night:
Boston lost to the Carolina Hurricanes for the 4th straight time this season. Final score 3-0 with Carloina scoring one every period. It is a bit of a head scratcher because Boston is big and tough and is 4th in the league and has 32 wins alone while Carolina is 27th in the league with only 19 wins all season! Go Carolina!
New Jersey beat Montreal 5-3. Montreal actually carried the lead the entire first 2 periods 'til New Jersey scored 3 goals in the 3rd period.
Philadelphia beat Nashville 4-1. Wayne Simmonds scored 2 goals alone.
Winnipeg beat Tampa Bay 2-1 in a OT. Former Canuck Kyle Wellwood scored the winner!
Minnesota scored the only goal 6 minutes into the 1st period in a 1-0 win over Colorado.
And finally San Jose beat Dallas 5-2. San Jose's usual suspects found the back of the net with Michal Handzus, Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Ryane Clowe scoring. Dallas's Jamie Benn and Steve Ott got their team on the board.
Tonight's Match Ups are:
New York Islanders vs Ottawa Senators at 4:30pm
Winnipeg Jets vs Florida Panthers at 4:30pm
Los Angeles Kings vs St. Louis Blues at 5:00pm
Chicago Blackhawks vs Calgary Flames at 6:00pm
Columbus Blue Jackets vs Anaheim Ducks at 7:00pm
One final hockey goal to think about may be Drew Doughty's goal with a second left in a tied game Wednesday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. You can check out the goal in "If You Need a Visual" watch it twice and the 2nd time keep your eye on the score clock, it freezes at 1.8 left on the clock for about 1/2 a second giving Doughty just enough time to score the goal. Now this might not seem like such a big deal to an outsider and in reality it means not much to Columbus who is the 30th and last place team in the league right now with 32 points in 51 games. But Los Angeles sits 7th in the western conference with 60 points. Had it gone into over time both teams would have collected a point and played for the bonus 2nd point. With the season 1/2 over teams are fighting for those extra points. Imagine the 8th and 9th place teams in the west are tied at the end of the season or 8th place Los Angeles has 1 more point then 9th place team unknown. Imagining this happens it would be that one point and win that could put the Kings into a playoff spot in a rather unfair way because of human error on the score clock and off ice officials in Toronto not seeing the clock freeze 'til it was to late. The ninth place finishing team would be out by default. Oh Hockey!
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