Dec 22, 2013; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
The first period was a pretty even period with Vancouver Canucks outshooting the Winnipeg Jets 8-7. The difference was 2 powerplays for Vancouver in which they converted 1 to take a 1-0 lead at 10:09 of the first. The Jets tried to clear the puck off the glass but Dan Hamhuis made a nice play to keep it in and he took a long wrist shot from the point which Brad Richardson deflected for his 7th goal of the year. It was a period of giveaways early on and both teams had some glorious chances to score.
Roberto Luongo was forced to leave the game late in the 1st period with an undisclosed injury and Eddie Lack had to come in to finish the game.
The second period saw the Canucks take it to the Jets early but the Jets held the fort and started to make some plays and ended up with their first powerplay of the game and Evander Kane scored on a beautiful play that started with Zach Bogosian, who made a nice play to Mark Scheifele, who gave it to Blake Wheeler who in turn found Kane in the slot for his 10th goal of the year at 11:22 and his first powerplay goal of the year. The goal also extended Scheifele’s point streak to 6 games. The game got slower with a lot of close checking along the boards during the second and third periods.
The Jets came out with an early chance in the third period and had a lot of the play in the Canucks end to start the third but could not convert. After 3 straight icings by the Canucks and the Jets with some pressure, the Canucks get their only real pressure of the third and score on a goal by Christopher Tanev his 4th of the year assisted by Zack Kassian and David Booth. Ondrej Pavelec was out of position after looking like he lost sight of where the puck was and it ends up in the back of their net. The Jets with lots of pressure can’t get the equalizer and play in their 22 one goal game of the year and lose 2-1 to the Canucks. The shots on goal were by Vancouver 25 and by Winnipeg 22.
There was one fight in the game between Anthony Peluso of Winnipeg and Tom Sestito of Vancouver. The Jets had 1 powerplay to the Canucks 3 powerplays, one of which was a phantom call on Eric O’Dell. To have only one powerplay against 3 considering the type of calls made in tonight’s game was a little frustrating.
The Jets take their 16-17-5 record into Edmonton tomorrow night to take on the Oilers who are just coming off a 6-0 thrashing from the St. Louis Blues.
Mark Stuart left the game late and didn’t return after chasing down David Booth and shoving him past Pavelec.
Winnipeg sits in 6th place in the Central with 37 points and 11th place in the conference with a one point lead on the Nashville Predators and 8 points back of a playoff spot. Vancouver wins their second in a row and have an 8-1-1 record in the last 10 games and sit in 6th in the conference with 50 points and 4th in the Pacific division.
Game time between the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers tomorrow Monday night December 23/2013 is at 8:30 PM Winnipeg time.