Canucks hang on to beat Blue Jackets 4-3

First Period

Aatu Räty hit a post early, and Lukas Reichel took the game’s first penalty shortly after that. The Canucks’ PK has been very bad this season, and they sure came close to giving up a goal early on in this one, too. Truly, it’s almost shocking how permissive the Canucks’ penalty killers can be. They allow so much east-west passing and give up the middle of the ice for puck carriers to move into. There were multiple close calls on the PK’s first chance of the night. Kevin Lankinen stood tall on a couple of opportunities, and had some help from the crossbar behind him on one of Columbus’s chances. And perhaps worst of all: there were multiple occassions of Columbus players getting the chance to take whacks at loose pucks in the crease with little pushback from the Canucks’ defence. But you’ll see more of that in The Stanchies tomorrow morning.

Lankinen made some downright fantastic stops in the first period:

With just over three minutes left in the first, Cole Sillinger held onto Quinn Hughes and gave the Canucks their first power play of the game. It didn’t go well. With five seconds remaining in the first, Lukas Reichel found himself with what looked like a great chance to score, but his attempt deflected up and out of play.

Some takeaways from the first:
-Tom Willander giving a cross check to Mathieu Olivier made me say “uh oh”.
-Absolutely love that Kevin Bieksa highlighted the Willander cross check on Olivier during the first intermission. Not a great idea!

Second Period

The Blue Jackets got another power play opportunity early in the second, and again, it was Lankinen who was the Canucks’ best penalty killer.

That kept the game scoreless and let the Canuck to go the other way and open the scoring. Aatu Räty and Drew O’Connor teamed up to set up Jake DeBrusk, who roofed a shot over Elvis Merzlikins’ glove to give the Canucks the game’s first lead.

1-0 Canucks.

That lead didn’t last long, as Kirill Marchenko scored a bit of a weird one as Tyler Myers knocked the puck off the pegs as the puck went in.

1-1. 

Moments after the goal, Mathieu Olivier hit Elias Pettersson, the defenceman, in the numbers. DPetey’s head hit the boards and he needed to be helped off the ice. That was a late hit, and the Canucks were given a five minute power play as a result.

Both of the Canucks’ power play units struggled to gain the zone, and when they did, there were only a couple of shots that made their way to Merzlikins. Side note: As Elias Pettersson (forward) got stripped of the puck after hesitating, boos were certainly heard from the Rogers Arena faithful. Not trying to pile on, it’s just worth noting. Anyways, the Canucks didn’t capitalize on their five minutes of power play time.

And then the Blue Jackets went back the other way and scored:

2-1 Blue Jackets.

Good news: DPetey returned before the end of the second! Bad news: Forward Elias Pettersson passed up another opportunity to shoot and turned the puck over instead:

Some more good news: Drew O’Connor notched his sixth point in his last five games when he evened this game up late in the second.

Before the end of the period, we saw one of the worst missed calls in recent memory:

Some takeaways from the second:
-Good to see Drew O’Connor being rewarded for the strong efforts he’s turned in lately.
-Thank goodness this team didn’t lose DPetey as well.

Third Period

The Canucks didn’t exactly press the Blue Jackets in the third, but once again, some key saves from Kevin Lankinen gave the Canucks a chance to take the lead. And take the lead they did.

After some extended time in the offensive zone, Elias Pettersson made a nice pass to a streaking and fresh Tyler Myers, who made a quick shift around Adam Fantilli to put himself into a prime scoring location. Conor Garland was then there to finish off the sequence.

3-2 Canucks. 

Columbus didn’t go away after that, though.

Kirill Marchenko got in on another goal, this time serving as the triggerman:

That’s one Lankinen will want back. 3-3.

Quinn Hughes turned in a phenomenal shift with seven minutes left in this one. First, he broke ankles:

Then he danced around the offensive zone some more and swung the momentum very firmly in the Canucks’ favour. On the next shift, with Hughes off the ice, Brock Boeser scored his seventh goal of the year when he bunted down a Kiefer Sherwood aerial pass and shot glove side on Merzlikins.

4-3 Canucks.

That’s Kiefer Sherwood’s first assist of the year. Brock Boeser scoring the game-winning goal on Hockey Fights Cancer night gets a big old hell yeah from me.

Aatu Räty was called for interference with 2:46 remaining, giving the Canucks’ PK their most important kill of the game…

And they did it! Canucks win!

Shoutout to Elias Pettersson, who fearlessly blocked two shots late in the game.

What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game?