Vancouver Canucks Remain on top against St. Louis Blues
Friday’s game was the deciding factor for Vancouver if they wanted to remain as the strongest team in the National Hockey League (NHL), going up against St. Louis they probably thought of easy pickings but they were wrong. So very wrong indeed; the Blues
didn’t go down without a fight, remaining tied the first 40 minutes, the Canucks had never seen this coming and that to at their very own sold-out Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia. It didn’t come effortless but Vancouver emerged victorious 3-2 against
the Blues.
Vancouver dominated the opening stage of the match while St. Louis conquered write back in the second. Mikael Samuelsson with passes by the Sedin twins scored the first midway through, with Sami Salo adding his first of the season nearly seven minutes later
from the faceoff circle to take the lead 2-0.
St. Louis are way far behind the Canucks point wise, 24 to be exact, sitting in 13th place in the Western Conference, don’t have much hope of reaching the play-offs, but are one of the few teams who have beat the Canucks at their home ground this
season, losing to them the first time in three matchups.
The Blues replied back in the next 20 minutes, with Alex Pietrangelo scoring during a power play when Daniel Sedin was sent out for slashing T.J. Oshie. David Backes added his 23rd of the season in the next 74 seconds, tying the match 2-2 which
would be decided in the final period.
Rookie goalie Cory Schneider and opponent Ty Conklin both performed well making over 24 saves each. But Conklin had it coming when Manny Malhotra got the go-ahead goal at the early 1:05 mark on the clock, making it the game winner for Vancouver.
St. Louis lost defensemen Nikita Nikitin early on in the first period due to a lower-body injury has lost their third consecutive game.
Vancouver is fighting to remain above the rest, now only one point ahead of rival Philadelphia and a mere seven points above conference rival Detroit. All-Star Ryan Kesler and the Sedin twins will have to pick up the pace as they did at the beginning of
the season if they want to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in Vancouver history.