Vancouver Canucks Beat Colorado Avalanche in Shootout

The Vancouver Canucks ended their brief three-game road trip with a 3-2 shootout win against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

This Vancouver Canucks road trip has gone much better than the last.

Despite playing half as many games, the Canucks managed one more win than they did during their six-game trip which concluded at the beginning of November.

After taking the Dallas Stars down to the wire last night, the Canucks pulled together and earned a shootout victory against the Colorado Avalanche.

It’s just their third road win of the season. They improve their overall record to 9-11-2 and sit three points back of the last wild card spot in the West.

Final Score:

VancouverCanucks3

ColoradoAvalanche2

Recap:

The Avalanche came out with some jump in the first minute, but the Canucks soon found their legs.

Loui Eriksson drew a tripping penalty behind the Avs’ goal, and then made them pay on the powerplay:

That’s Eriksson’s fifth goal. Despite not playing with the Sedins, he is starting to look like the player the Canucks thought they were getting in the offseason.

Vancouver took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Halfway through the second period, the Avalanche got on the board. Mikhail Grigorenko slammed the puck in on a scramble in front of Jacob Markstrom:

More from The Canuck Way

Markstrom complained to the referee after the goal. While making the initial save, Matt Duchene appeared to run into his glove hand while he was fishing for the puck. His protests fell on deaf ears, though, and the game was tied.

It remained tied until the third period, when Vancouver struck again.

Bo Horvat came streaking down the left wing and then found Alexandre Burrows with a nifty cross-seam pass. Burrows buried it for his fourth of the season.

With that assist, Horvat extends his team lead in scoring. He now has 15 points on the year.

This Canucks lead did not last nearly as long as the first one. Just 2:36 later, Jarome Iginla threw a shot on goal from the point. The puck hit Brandon Sutter‘s stick, bounced off the ice, then past Markstrom:

After 60 Minutes

Markstrom had a whale of a game. He finished with 33 saves, plus three more in the shootout. He took a tumble behind the net when Nathan MacKinnon lost his edge and careened into Markstrom’s feet. And he took a tripping penalty when he charged out of the net to play the puck, taking out Carl Soderberg in the process.

Oh, and he made this save:

After an eventful overtime which yielded no goal, the game went to a shootout.

Markus Granlund was up first for the Canucks, and he wasted no time putting his team ahead:

That would be the only goal the Canucks needed, as the Avs were stopped on all three of their attempts.

Injury News

There was some bad news from this road win, though.

In the first period, Alexander Edler left the game after blocking a shot. He would not return.

Denver is not kind to Edler. If you recall, his year ended in Colorado last season when he sustained a fractured leg on another shot block. We hope this injury is much less severe.

With Edler already out of the game, Luca Sbisa took an awkward hit at centre ice and had to leave the ice as well. After Troy Stecher took a late first period penalty, the Canucks had only three defensemen available to kill the first 45 seconds.

Fortunately, Sbisa was able to return in the second period and help kill the remaining time on the penalty. The Canucks made it through the game with five defensemen.

The Vancouver Canucks have completed their second road trip and made it a winning one. They now return home to prepare for a Tuesday night game at Rogers Arena, against the Minnesota Wild.

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