Remember the last time the Nucks won the 1st couple games of the season? Me neither.

There was a big buildup to this game. The Oil who soiled their fugly jerseys in Vancouver, were expected to comeback hard and win this game 8-1 - according to the shrewd homer minds on HNIC.

Don't you just love it when HNIC wears the soil on their homer faces? Yes, yes we do.

There was some faint hope the Nucks could comeback with a tough checking low event game. 45 seconds into the 1st and it's Nucking tirefire flashback Friday on Saturday in front of DeSmith. The high event alarm was ringing loud as DryTemper scored.

Running circles around us right now

Twitch

But, and I am not making this up. The Nucks go on the PK. All of the McDryingnation on HNIC are counting on the Oil scoring 5 goals. On a single power play. They don't even score one.

And, I'm not making this up either. The Nucks go on the PP and SCORE! Beauty tip from Kuz on a beauty shot from Capt'n Quinn.

Know who else is a big tipper? Hogz. Really. Tipped a Brock point shot.

Nucks lead 2-1 after 1 in the other Rogers Place. Even if at one point the Oil had 8 shots on goal and Nucks had 1 - closed the gap to 8-7 after 1.

In the 2nd, the Nucks receive a bad call on McD.

Bad call... McD was not the victim. He just plays one in media scrums

jimmi

The infamous Oil PP get a goal on this time, yes, from McD. Blech.

However, the Oil feel like they own the joint - get caught up ice. Puck comes around to Pete. It's a 2-on-0 with Pete and fresh emergency recall, Studs, breaking in on Skinner. He expects Pete to shoot. Pete passes to Studs and he scores.

1 goal lead restored. For almost 8 minutes. Nucks get another ref reminder for not quite 2 minutes. Oil score again on their formerly league-leading PP.

Soooo many scrambles deep in our zone.

Twitch

3-3 after 2. That's not so bad for a road game. Even if the McOil outshot the Nucks 18-6 in the 2nd. Ouch. However, Oil were gifted with 4 power plays. Maybe deserved a couple, but homer rink rules.

Doesn't matter.

There's hope spreading through the game thread like a fart in a phone booth. NOTE: For the youngins, in a previous century, a phone booth was a place to make a phone call using pocket change* or a time machine across many centuries. *We'll explain the pocket change concept another time.

20 minutes to win this game...sounds good.

Westy

Probably sounds a little too good. Or does it?

As predicted or as wished for, McOil don't get any goals on their power plays - including a 5 on 3. Not making it up. The Nucking PK didn't allow another goal against the Oil's formerly-league leading PP. Thanks to the heroics of shot blockers including DeSmith.

Even better, and again I'm not making it up, Nucks score the tie-breaking, the Game Winning Goal! From the power skating addition of Long Stride Rafferty who out-powered Ekholmer and stuffed the puck past Skinner.

The Tough Taco team gutted it out and kept the lead - winning 4-3 right in the big puddle of Oil town. Staring down 3 minutes of 6-5 Oil pressure. And 60 minutes of HNIC Oil cheering.

NUCKS WIN!!! Despite getting outshot 40-16, this was the gritty one goal win we that we expected hoped for.

THE GOOD

What a difference a big positive diff can make. How big? It's league leading woo woo. Again.

Despite getting out-speeded, out-shotted, the Nucks out-blocked a scary number of shots that DeSmith didn't have to stop. And again, the Nucks played better on the boards than we expected. Although, Taco expects the Nucks to win all the board battles - or at least 90%. Or is it 99%? Have to look that up.

Doesn't matter. The formerly worst PK in the league only gave up 2 goals on 7 attempts by the NHL's formerly best PP. Impressive, despite a few gaffes from Hronnie and the Tall Chaos on skates.

Team Stats
Power Plays	1/3	2/7
Penalty Shots	0/0	0/0
Hits	29	33
Faceoffs Won	30	28
Giveaways	21	19
Takeaways	8	8
Shots Blocked	25	9
Penalty Minutes	14	6

PLAYER STATS

Pete played elite, with 2 apples and smart plays everywhere. Huggie, of course, got points and went for a nice time burning skate around the Oil net - 2 laps and then a pass.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

It's HNIC full Saturday Night in Oilynation, so expect the worst and mute the even worse parts. Or not, because the Oil fanboys have to watch and talk about another Nucks win over the McOil Pretty Sure Cup Contenders.

It's a win streak! Sure, we expected some improvement this season, as we do at the start of every season. But this time the improvement has been won and delivered.

To be fair, it's one thing to beat the winless, the worst, the 32nd ranked team in the NHL. So there's that.

Nucks face a tougher road test on Tuesday, as they begin their journey into the belly of the eastern gulag teams. Tuesday they play Phillie. And worse, it's an afternoon game (3PM PST), that Westy is already giddy about.

Still... we can swagger around the NM lounge and consolation center celebrating our penultimate league leading Taco Tough Nucks!