The two teams played a tight first and a fun second but the Wild, who are dark horse Stanley Cup contenders, took over in the third and simply out-paced the tired Canucks
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It was always a long shot.
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The Vancouver Canucks’ playoff dreams just about crashed to a halt Thursday night in St. Paul, Minn., with a 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
The two teams played a tight first and a fun second but the Wild, who are dark horse Stanley Cup contenders, took over in the third and simply outpaced the tired Canucks, who were playing their third game in four nights.
Minnesota have lost just eleven in regulation time in their last 19 games. It was also their 28th win in 37 home games.
The Canucks were led by a powerful performance by Elias Pettersson, who had two goals, putting the visitors into a 3-2 lead in the second period. Matt Highmore also scored for Vancouver.
“We battled hard all game. We had a 3-2 lead. Would love to have had that coming into the third,” Pettersson said.
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It was also the 22nd time the Wild came back to win this season.
“It’s extremely tough,” he said of how his team was feeling. “We knew how badly we wanted to win.”
“He’s a big game player,” Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said of Pettersson post-game. “He’s going to prove to the world very shortly just how good this guy is.”
“They gave it everything they have. Miller’s blocking a shot and has a couple of ice packs. Richardson breaks his nose and wants to play. They never quit. They could’ve given up a long time ago, the odds were against us, but they believe, ”he added about his team from him.
Minnesota’s offense was paced by two from Kevin Fiala, singles from Jared Spurgeon, Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov, plus an empty-netter by Ryan Hartman.
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Here’s what we learned…
Big Game Player
It was an awful start for Pettersson this season.
In the 46 games he played before the All-Star break, he had just 11 goals and shot just 12 per cent.
In the 30 games he’s played since, he’s scored 20 goals in 30 games, scoring on nearly one-quarter of his shots.
And then he scored again late in the second, putting his team up 3-2. He banged in a rebound from right on top of the crease, the kind of finish and confidence to go to dirty areas that he was lacking earlier in the season when he was playing with the wrong stick and also struggling to regain full strength in his wrist .
NEXT GAME
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Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames
7 pm, Scotiabank Saddledome. TV: CBC, Sportsnet Pacific. Radio: Sportsnet 650.
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Illustrious 30
Pettersson’s goal, which tied the game at 1 just 38 seconds after Fiala’s spectacular opening goal, was his 30th of the season.
“I’d trade it for a win today,” he said of reaching 30 goals scored.
That gives the Canucks three 30-goal scorers this season, joining Bo Horvat (31) and JT Miller (30).
He’s the 10th Canuck to score 30 goals before the age of 23, joining Trevor Linden (5 times), Tony Tanti (4 times), Pavel Bure (3 times), Petr Nedved, Petri Skriko, Patrik Sundstrom, Stan Smyl, Dennis Ververgaert and Don Lever.
It’s the first time since 1995-96 that three Canucks have scored 30 or more in the same season. That year the Canucks’ offense was paced by Alex Mogilny (55), Trevor Linden (33) and Martin Gelinas (30).
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That team could score in bunches — they were sixth in the league, scoring 3.39 goals pre game — but they were brutal defensively. The team’s save percentage was just .888, sixth-worst in the league.
What a zone entry
The opening goal from Fiala was a thing of beauty. The key play was a tip pass from Fiala to winger Freddy Gaudreau, which flummoxed Tyler Myers, who pinched to Fiala, leaving Gaudreau with a wide open lane on the zone entry.
Myers was completely caught out of position, tried to scramble across but couldn’t prevent Gaudreau from playing the puck back across to Fiala who fired the puck into the wide open cage.
Myers has had an up and down season. Lots happens when he’s on the ice, both positively and negatively, and he’s been nicknamed the Chaos Giraffe as a result.
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Can’t stop what you can’t see
The second Wild goal again involved Myers, who was shaken up in a collision behind the net and was slow to react to the unfolding play.
He tried to cover Connor Dewar in front of the net but only screened Demko.
The Canucks’ goalie never had a chance on Spurgeon’s point shot and the game was knotted up at 2. (Highmore briefly put the Canucks in the lead after Spurgeon coughed up the puck in his own end.)
That ended a sequence of four goals at 4:29 in the second.
Tired goalie?
It was the third game in four nights most crucially for Thatcher Demko.
The Canucks had wanted to give him a night off on Tuesday vs. Ottawa, but Jaroslav Halák’s first-period injury foiled that plan.
Demko didn’t look good on Zuccarello’s tally, as the winger wired his wrist shot over the Canuck goalie’s glove and the second Fiala tally saw the speedy forward get his shot up and over Demko’s glove as well.
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Fiala had circled the zone twice in the lead up. “I had a plan,” he said after he reached the corner for a second time.
Kaprizov’s shot was a quick-fire, but it was still a surprise to see the puck sail through his five-hole.
The playoff picture
According to HockeyViz.com, the Canucks game into the game with a nine per cent chance of making the playoffs.
Because they lost in regulation, their chances fell, but at the same time Calgary’s 4-2 defeat of Dallas kept the Canucks’ playoff chances alive, though they’re down to five per cent.
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