Arturs Stealov Steals The Deal!
Despite the hosing the Nucks received last night on the strip, tonight's game in the tight confines of the Mullet arena is a great, but tiny place to bounce back.
Nucks controlled play like the #1 team in the Pacific playing the 7th placed team in the Western. For 40 minutes.
Despite the Nucks outshooting Yotes by a 3-to-1 margin, game was scoreless until mid 2nd period.
Nucks had a PP in the 1st, but there were connection troubles...
Good lord what a brutal power play...passing to no one, shooting at nothing, losing the puck... brutal.
Twitch
Despite the Nucks having so many great chances 5-on-5, in the 2nd it was the near legendary Nucks PP, or as we now call it: Huggie's free skate time, that broke the tie.
...and Huggie with the hat-trick!
Atty
Road-trip hat-trick, that is.
Atty
1-0 Nucks after 2 with the Nucks outshooting D-dogs 23-7. That's good.
Pre-3rd Atty Precog wrote...
Man, a lot of work, lots of shots for a one goal-lead.
Atty
Unfortunately they will have to work even harder in the 3rd because the Yotes will push back and probably score one.
To start the 3rd, Nucks are skating a little slower, slower to loose pucks, slower to make the smart play, but quicker to make the stupid one. There was one sequence when the puck was stick-adverse and wouldn't stick on a Nucks stick or a desert dog one. I'd like to describe it detail, but not even a sportynet video recap is permitted to display keystone kops komedy hockey between commercials. Who am I to thwart the NHL's advertising revenue aspirations.
OMG! OMG! Whiffin' For Whiffers!
jimmi
Yotes are pressing and getting more zone time where Stealovs is trying to remember what happens when the opposing team gets lots of zone time. Oh...right... shots... lots of tricky shots. He stopped all the dogged shots.
Stopped all the shots on Thuggie's 1st penalty. However, on Thuggie's 2nd penalty of the game, his NHL shutout was taken off the achievement list.
It was a bogus call... because the Mullet ice needs more ref leveling. And Yotes tie it up. Ugh.
Huggie is pissed. Taco is pissed. We were pissed. But, the later is SOP for game threads.
2 minutes away from playing OT in a college rink in the 2nd of a back-2-back is not the extra time we're looking for.
Also... Thuggie is pissed - not letting OT happen on his shift(s). Thuggie goes on a free skate, puts the puck off the back boards and Gnarly shoots the bouncey thing in the net.
2-1 Nucks with 2 mins to go. Yotes press, but Nucks clear the puck and the EN beckons for EP... who passes off to Miki who can't wrangle the puck to get the empty net goal. Some snakebites are longer lasting than others.
Hats off to the boys, this was a gutsy win.
Before this game, the Dogs earned 16 points since the All Stars Game.
Atty
We had 17 points.
So, the two teams were pretty much even this spring.
GAME NOTES:
The Mullet Arena is not the show piece of pro hockey that Gary touts. Broadcast sight lines are beer league.
McBain blew up Pete at the blueline. Looked like a clean hit... if unrequired as Pete was just trying to stay onside. Miller immediately drops the gloves - to stick up for Pete - and gets dropped. But still... Miller followed correct protocol and didn't punch the helmet, let McB punch his instead.
Pete got an assist on the 1st Nucks PP. I don't have to type pointless Pete twice in a row. That's good. What wasn't good was watching Pete defer a great shooting chance to Hogz with a worse shooting chance. Nice to see him unselfishly pass off the EN to Miki, but what has happened to his shoot-first mentality?
MULLET SHINING MOMENTS
Shortie and Ray are following the Nucks on the road. Will they be allowed to after April 20th?
STATS
SHOTS
CANUCKS | Period | YOTES |
7 | 1st | 3 |
16 | 2nd | 4 |
10 | 3rd | 14 |
33 | TOTAL | 21 |
PLAYER POINTS
GOALS | ASSISTS | +/- | |
GNARLAND | 1 | +1 | |
PETTERSSON | 1 | +1 | |
MILLER | 1 | 0 | |
HRONEK | 1 | +1 | |
HUGHES | 1 | 1 | +1 |
Saves | Shots | SV% | |
SILOVS | 20 | 21 | .952 |
TACO TALK
"Grindy kind of game... thought Freids was really good, he was good on the bench too." - Coach Taco
Friedman saw 6 minutes of ice as the 12th forward, which might be why he's so good on the bench.
Hear and see Taco in his natural desert environ at NHL.COM.
The tough road trip is a split so far. 500 hockey like we onced dreamed of... for years.
Nucks have to take their grindy grindy game to the next level of grindy on Saturday in LA.
Want to say I'm looking forward to watching Pete light up red lights like early season Pete.
There. I said it. Pete needs to light the scoresheet to reclaim his hundred point Pete moniker in the remaining 6 games. 15 points in 6 games, Pete? You can do it! That's only 3 hatties and a couple 5 point games. Right?