The Canucks have a perfect homestand going 5-0-0. They have done this a handful of times before in past years, but never in all the years have all five games been decided by one goal. The first three games of the block were all 3-2 finals, with the Colorado game ending in a shootout, the Islander game ending in regulation, and the Devil game ending in overtime. Then the scores decreased, as the Leaf game ended 2-1 and the Blues game 1-0. Rask continues to shine, giving up only seven goals in the five games.
Colorado 2 Vancouver 3 (SO)For the third home game in a row the game goes past 60 minutes of playing time, but this time it is the Canucks who get the extra point. Colorado dominated the game, outshooting Vancouver 42-24. But, yet again, Rask was up to the task (Rask was a perfect 3 for 3 on GRs, Grubauer 2 for 4). The first period saw the only goal scored by Vancouver, when Roussel scored on an outside shot. Colorado tied it up after two periods when Svechnikov scored on a rebound opportunity. Then early in the third period the Avs got their one lead in the game when Matthews scored on an inside shot. When Jenner took a penalty at 14:46 of the period, things were looking grim, as Colorado had all kinds of pressure on the Canucks, but they couldn’t beat Rask. Then right after that penalty expired, the refs decided it was Vancouver’s turn on the power play and Edler was whistled down. Right off the faceoff Boeser scored to tie it 2-2. Then just before regulation time ended, Lindblom had an excellent chance to win it, but Grubauer robbed him (Goal 1-11, pulled a 12). Overtime resolved nothing and it was on to the shootout. After Matthews was stopped on his chance, three goals in a row were scored. First Gaudreau, then Thomas, and then Lindblom. DeBrincat tried to retie it for Colorado, but he was robbed by Rask (Goal 1-4+, pulled a 5) and Vancouver hangs on in a very exciting and tense game.
New York 2 Vancouver 3Just like last game, Vancouver took a 1-0 in the first period on an outside shot, this time by Gostibehere at 7:14. Canuck nemisis Kevin Hayes then scored his fifth goal of the year against Vancouver just 1:14 seconds later on a breakaway to tie it 1-1. Not to be outdone, the Canucks answered just 28 seconds later to reestablish their one goal lead when Roussel scored on yet another outside shot. So it looked like a wild high scoring game developing, but not another goal was scored until 6:37 of the third period when Hayes lost the puck and it ended up in the back of the Isle’s net when Hintz scored on a breakaway. That insurance goal was needed as Bergeron got inside at 18:11 and pulled New York within one at 3-2. But with the goalie pulled, the Islanders could only get one shot off and Rask stopped that to preserve the win.
New Jersey 2 Vancouver 3 (OT)New Jersey started the game by totally dominating the first period. They outshot the Canucks 18-4, had 7 GR chances to Vancouver’s zero, but when the dust settled they led only 1-0 on an outside shot by Duchune. They also dominated the second period, out shooting Vancouver 16-5, but Canuck Curse came back and despite the domination, they were outscored 2-0, as Varlamov went 1 for 3 on GRs (and on only 5 SOG) and Rask went 3 for 3. Lindblom tied it on a faceoff play on the power play, scoring only 7 seconds into the power play, and Gostisbehere scored on a breakaway and it was 2-1 in favor of Vancouver after two periods, despite being totally outplayed. In the evenly played third period, the Devils got three power play opportunities, and Vancouver one, but the Devils did tie it up on their first power play of the period when Eichel scored and it was on to overtime. Overtime was totally Vancouver’s as they denied the Devils any shots, while getting three shots themselves with all three generating GR chances. Krejci was denied twice on the first shift, but right after Gaudreau stepped on the ice he found himself being fed a pass from Carlo, penetrating inside and beating Varlamov for the GWG at 2:57 of overtime and keeping their record perfect against the Devils this year. Varlamov finishes 3 for 6 on GRs, Rask 10 for 11.
Toronto 1 Vancouver 2Vancouver comes out confidently against the last place Leafs and dominates the first period, out shooting them 18-8 and getting two goals. The first by Gaudreau to give him 29 on the season, but later in the period, on Vancouver’s only power play of the game, Boeser scores to beat Gaudreau in the race to score 30 goals on the season. Necas and Josi both got assists on both goals. But the last two periods were dominated by the Leafs, as they outshoot the Canucks 31-15. But the only goal they can score is late in the second period by Donato. The Leafs blow their opportunity for the win by going 0 for 4 on the power play and allowing Vancouver to score what turns out to be the GWG on their only power play.
St. Louis 0 Vancouver 1The cherry on top, as Vancouver completes a perfect homestand and Rask gets his, at least currently, league leading fifth shutout. Rask was a perfect 7 for 7 on GRs, and Vasilevskiy was perfect too, going 5 for 5. Lindblom scored the only goal of the game at 11:14 of the first period on what was the only number chance by both teams in the entire game, (Goal 1-11, pulled a 10). A slightly odd game statistically as the Blues had a whooping 15 takeaways, but zero penetrations, (Vancouver had 8 takeaways and 7 penetrations).
