This game got started like most Canucks games recently: with Vancouver giving up the first goal.
For five straight games, the Canucks have conceded the first goal. Despite this, they still lead the league in opening the scoring, having done it 33 times this season.
After that, the Canucks did a good job of getting back to basics. Getting the puck in deep, forechecking hard, and doing the things that have made them successful. Some dancing by Quinn Hughes led to the Canucks picking up their first power play of the game.
The first unit looked about as dangerous as they have in recent memory, but it didn’t result in a goal. At 5v5, the Canucks continued to do the right things, but they didn’t look “dangerous.” For a second straight game, it sure seemed like the Canucks’ stars weren’t going to be difference makers.
To open the second, however, top six Nils Höglander scored to tie things up at one apiece. Notably, it was Elias Pettersson’s first 5v5 point in 9 games.
A Nikita Zadorov match penalty put the Canucks down shorthanded for five minutes, and a Filip Hronek high stick shortly after put the Canucks on the PK for seven minutes.
It was over these seven minutes that Noah Juulsen and Dakota Joshua shone very bright. Both players made some very smart reads to keep the puck out of the Canucks’ net. Casey DeSmith was also crucial to the Canucks killing off the seven minutes of shorthanded time, leading to the momentum swing the team was waiting for when Filip Hronek stepped out of the box.
The former Red Wing found himself on a breakaway in his old barn and made no mistake on the shot:
You’ve got to let him shoot in the shootout the next time the opportunity presents itself.
Now somehow up by a goal, the Canucks didn’t rest on their laurels, as Elias Pettersson scored his 28th goal of the season just over two minutes after Hronek’s go-ahead marker.
Later, we saw Alex DeBrincat start a fight with Ian Cole, which as my Canucks Conversation co-host Harman Dayal put it, felt a lot like an angry child trying to fight his dad.
And just like that, the Canucks headed into the third period up by a pair of goals.
In the third, Nils Höglander tripped up Patrick Kane, giving the Wings a power play opportunity early in the third. Just as the penalty was expiring, Daniel Sprong converted as both of the Canucks’ defencemen got caught below the goal line.
This was not a banner game for Tyler Myers.
This game was back to even when Vancouver-born Michael Rasmussen tied things up just minutes before the halfway point of the third.
Daniel Sprong’s second penalty of the game — this one, a holding penalty on Ian Cole — gave the Canucks an opportunity to pull ahead late. A dogpile in front of Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon was reviewed, but it was determined that the puck never crossed the line.
This one needed overtime.
In overtime, Elias Pettersson lost a board battle and Quinn Hughes was perhaps too high up in the play. This resulted in a Detroit breakaway, and a *checks notes* cross-checking penalty assessed to Hughes, leading to a penalty shot for Detroit.
Ballgame.
What’s your instant reaction to today’s game?
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