Penguins 4, Canucks 1: The booing birds come out as hosts locked in

Article content

You make your own bed in the NHL.

Article content

And for these Vancouver Canucks Saturday night at Rogers Arena, a late leg of the second period was their downfall. The Canucks took three penalties in quick succession, leading to a pair of power play goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The two goals, both from Penguins winger Jake Guentzel, who had a hat trick on the night, stood as the difference in the visitors’ 4-1 win.

Even before the Canucks took crucial penalties, the Penguins dominated the game, shooting Vancouver 34-12 in the first two periods, but could not find a goal as Canucks goalkeeper Thatcher Demko was on target. his best moment. , deflecting almost all shots aimed in his direction.

Before the score finally turned against them, the Canucks were even one goal post from taking a 2-1 lead midway through the second frame, when Elias Pettersson fired a wrist shot from the post slot to the right of Penguins goalkeeper Tristan Jarry.

Article content

But overall, the Canucks just didn’t create enough and by the end of the third period, fans began to make their feelings heard, raining boos from the stands.

The Penguins were led by Guentzel’s hat trick and then a third-period marker from Sidney Crosby, who had also had assists on Guentzel’s last two goals, to seal the game in the third. Vasily Podkolzin scored the Canucks’ only goal.

This is what we learned …

Bounce, bounce, bounce

Despite their dominance of the game during the first 20 minutes of play, the Penguins were unable to find a goal.

So, of course, the former joined due to a rebound, as a shot from Pittsburgh defender Brian Dumoulin bounced off a leg up front and the puck landed on the stick of his teammate Guentzel.

Article content

Guentzel, the Penguins’ top scorer, made no mistake, burying his shot behind Demko to put the visitors up early in the second period.

Central sheath

Podkolzin’s role continues to grow, as he has now become a fixture in the power play.

He lined up as the “bumper” player in the middle of the slot, an interesting place for him as it requires a deft touch with the stick and an instinct to retrieve pucks in the corners and behind the net.

Both are qualities that the Russian rookie has in abundance.

It showed the first on its target, converting an Ekman-Larsson spot shot from a heat-seeking missile into a shot that looked more like a mortar round, circling in midair.

He reviewed Jarry’s shoulder and entered the net for Podkolzin’s fifth of the year.

Article content

Know the rules

Tyler Myers could have hit the puck. But it didn’t and it reminded us of a pretty simple rule: You can’t just grab the puck and throw it away.

But for whatever reason, that’s what the giant Canucks defender did. Instead of pushing the puck as best he could, he grabbed the puck and threw it.

It was an easy decision for the referees and caused the game to go wide open.

The Canucks dropped a man and then, 31 seconds later, the umpires whistled Tyler Motte to make a cross check in the corner on Pengiuins defender Kris Letang. Perhaps it was a difficult decision, as Letang seemed more unbalanced than anything else, although Motte hit him in the back with the stick.

NEXT GAME

Monday

LA Kings vs. Vancouver Canucks

Article content

7 pm, Rogers Arena. TV: Sportsnet Pacific. Radio: Sportsnet 650.

Either way, Letang fell to the ice and the penguins met at 5v3. And then, 20 seconds later, Tucker Poolman, trying to fend off the two-man lead, pushed the puck out of the slot.

The problem was that the puck went straight to the stands.

Guentzel scored his second goal almost on the ensuing faceoff, scoring almost from the same spot as the first, and then netted his hat-trick a minute later, this time from across the zone.

In all three cases, he showed the electric shot that should be considered for the United States Olympic team in February.

Local connection

Every NHL game now features an emergency backup goalkeeper, a local amateur goalkeeper who is available to disguise himself as a backup for one of the two teams in action in the event that a goalkeeper is forced to leave the game due to injury.

Article content

Their identity is not usually noticeable, most of the time they are a local university goalkeeper, usually from UBC, but on this particular Saturday, the “EBug”, as they are called, was Cale Dolan, son of the former 86ers of Vancouver and Canadian men. national soccer team goalkeeper Paul Dolan.

Junior Dolan is a 22-year-old goalie on the Simon Fraser University men’s hockey team. His goalkeeping coach at SFU, Patrick Zubrick, was supposed to serve as EBug, but couldn’t, so Dolan got the call.

[email protected]

twitter.com/risingaction

The Canucks Report, powered by Province Sports, is essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. Sign up here .

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We would like to hear from you about this or any other story that you think we should know about. Send an email to [email protected].