The Vancouver Canucks are currently the best team in the league, but each game can be more unpredictable than the next.
On a President’s Day matinee against the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks gave up seven goals…in the third period. Their previous high was six in a game against New Jersey back on December 5.
In a game that saw J.T. Miller netted a hat trick and four points, the Wild counterattacked with a pair of hat tricks from Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov, who also had three assists each. Matt Boldy and Max Zuccarello had four points in the 10-7 victory.
On the surface, it would appear that the Minnesota Vikings took down the BC Lions.
The victory gave Minnesota a 2-1 series win this season against the Canucks, a team they may end up facing in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring. Minnesota currently sits at 58 points, tied with Nashville, and just two points back of St. Louis for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
For Vancouver, they still sit 10 points clear of Vegas for tops in the Pacific Division, four clear of Dallas for the top seed in the conference, and three clear of Boston for home ice throughout the playoffs.
Could we be heading for a rematch of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals? Not if the Canucks have another repeat of Monday’s loss.
The key to Minnesota’s win was three goals in the final minute of all three periods. The first two cut into Vancouver leads of 2-0 and 5-2 respectively. Zuccarello’s first at 19:27 of the second was the first of four consecutive power play goals by the Wild, and set off a string of six goals in 5:45 of gametime. This was the fastest in the NHL since Washington placed six in 4:47 against Tampa Bay in 1999, where the Capitals coincidentally also ended up with a 10-spot.
Minnesota’s four consecutive power play goals gave them 4-of-6 with the man advantage. Vancouver was 1-for-3 themselves, but you cannot give up four and expect to win.
Vancouver went from up 5-2, to down 8-5, then netted two more to cut the lead to one with 2:08 remaining. The Wild put two empty net goals through, capped off with Kaprizov’s hat trick.
Teams netting 10 is a rarity in the NHL, even with scoring up the last few years. Even eight is considered an offensive onslaught. Amazing what just two extra goals can do.
Torey Krug put up five assists for St. Louis in a game over the weekend. For two Wild players to put up six points in a game, three of which contributed to the double-digit tally.
Minnesota does not need to worry about being caught from behind, as the only teams in the Central Division chasing them are Arizona and Chicago…both headed to the draft lottery. The win also jumped them a single point ahead of Seattle and Calgary. Calgary hung six on Winnipeg Monday afternoon, and the Jets will host Minnesota on Tuesday night. Talk about irony where a team gave up six will host a team that just scored 10. The Jets were the best team in the NHL on New Year’s Eve, but have been sluggish on both ends of the All Star break.
Casey DeSmith was in net for eight of the Canuck goals allowed, while Filip Gustavsson was lifted after two periods in favor of Marc-Andre Fleury. When a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer in waiting like Fleury has a save percentage of just .750 through one period (6 saves on 8 shots), it shows that sometimes the shooters are more on than the goaltenders were off.
-JC24