Game 34: Anaheim (12-13-7) @ Canucks (19-14-0)

Vancouver looks to win four consecutive games for the first time this season against a Ducks team that is last in the Western Conference (which is odd for a .500 team). This off-season, Anaheim traded away top defenseman Chris Pronger and also lost top-4 blue-liner Francois Beauchemin to free agency making this team average in a department they were strong in for many years. To counter this, they acquired Lupul and Saku Koivu bolstering their top-6 forwards (adding to already core consisting of Getzlaf, Perry, Selanne and Ryan). Unfortunately, Scott Niedermayer (who is probably having one of his worst seasons) hasn't been able to carry the D-corp and the major drop-off of offensive talent after the second line has really hurt the Ducks.

To add to their misery, the Ducks will be without Selanne (broken finger) and Lupul (back injury - had surgery today) who are both out with injury. However, Anaheim still has superstars like Getzlaf and Perry (both will probably be on the Canadian Olympic team) so taking them lightly is not a good idea. In their first and only meeting this season, the Ducks scored seven unanswered goals after the Canucks scored two quick ones to win an easy 7-2 game. In goal for Anaheim will be Hiller (he and Giggy have been splitting time but Jonas gets the nod tonight).

As for the Canucks, Wellwood will be a healthy scratch for the third time in four games after having a tough night against LA (-1 and 2 PIM). He and Hordichuk will flip-flop positions:

Sedin - Sedin - Burrows

Samuelsson - Kesler - Raymond

Bernier - Rypien - Glass

Hordichuk - Johnson - Hansen

Mitchell - Bieksa

O'Brien - Salo

Schneider - Ehrhoff

Luongo

1st Period:

About 2 minutes in the Ducks get the first scoring chance as the puck bounces in front of Luongo off a Canuck leg and Sexton (a new player for the Ducks) tries to sweep it in but Luongo stops him nicely.

About 30 seconds after that, Daniel takes a hooking penalty in the offensive zone giving the Ducks the first power-play of the game. Anaheim doesn't have a good record but they do have the 3rd best PP in the league, so going to the box is like playing with fire. Fortunately for Vancouver, the Canuck PK does a good job and the Ducks don't do much.

Exactly 7 minutes in the Canucks are penalized again as Kesler is called for tripping while trying to fore-check. This time the Ducks get about four shots but most of them were from the outside as the Canucks did a good job around Luongo. Another good kill for Vancouver but that doesn't mean they shouldn't worry about taking more penalties.

With 9 minutes left Brown and Nokelainen come in on a broken 2-on-1. Brown has to wait and when the pass gets over Nokelainen kind of fans on the shot. The puck trickles towards the goal-line but Luongo just gets his glove on it.

About 25 seconds after that the Ducks come in on a 3-on-2 but Sexton fans on the one-timer pass from Ryan.

Then, about 25 seconds after that chance, O'Brien turns it over to Koivu in the neutral zone. Koivu passes to Sexton who gets it to Ryan sending him on a partial breakaway. Ryan is being hounded from behind so he shoots it from the slot and it goes five-hole on Luongo. 1-0 Ducks as they have owned the period.

With 6:16 left the Canucks get their first chance on the power-play as Getzlaf goes off on a weak hooking call, but they weren't able to capitalize as all their shots either missed or were blocked. The Canucks got one shot on net, and it was their first shot of the period!

2:30 remaining, Niedermayer is standing on his own blue-line, the puck bounces over his stick and the Canucks are sent on a 3-on-2. Daniel carries the puck and passes it across the crease to Henrik. Burrows goes to the net to create traffic and Henrik makes no mistake to tie the game at 1-1 (they both keep their streaks alive).

The period ends with the shots 13-2 in Anaheim's favor. Yeah, the Canucks are extremely lucky to be tied 1-1 going into the middle frame. That late goal will probably help, but Vancouver will have to start the period short-handed as Ehrhoff took a holding penalty with two seconds remaining.

2nd Period:

36 seconds into the period, the Ducks aren't able setup on the power-play. Getzlaf then dumps in the puck but trips up Mitchell trying to retrieve it resulting in 4-on-4 action. Right at the end of the 4-on-4 a missed Canucks shot goes around the boards and gives Ryan another partial breakaway. This time he tries to shoot high and is stopped nicely by Luongo. The Canucks aren't able to setup on their short power-play and both teams return to even strength.

5 minutes into the period and the Ducks have picked up where they left off in the first. They keep getting great chances off Canuck defensive mistakes however Luongo is definitely on his game (at this point the scoring chances are listed as 14-1 for Anaheim...). Fortunately, the Canucks get a chance to turn the tide as Boynton takes an interference penalty. This power-play was a lot better than the Canucks' first (full) PP as they got a good amount of shots and had good puck possession. Right after the penalty ended the Ducks dump it out to change but Luongo comes out and passes the puck up. Hansen and Burrows get a partial 2-on-0, Burrows gets the pass in front, makes a move to his back-hand but misses the net.

Just seconds after that chance Burrows is high-sticked by Festerling and the Canucks are back on the man-advantage. This PP took a step back as the Canucks had control for most of the two minutes but it was all on the outside resulting in just 2 shots that were easily saved. The team that came into the game with the 2nd best PP is now 0-4.

With 9:30 left Calder and Perry come in on a broken 2-on-1. Calder passes it over to Perry and he is absolutely robbed by Luongo's pad in front of the net. The Ducks get the rebound and pass it around. Calder in front of the net trips up Luongo, the puck gets to the other side and Brookbank sees that he has an empty net. He takes the shot but Luongo comes across making the miraculous diving save. Unfortunately, we only have about a second to marvel at that save as Getzlaf puts in the rebound because Luongo was down after that desperation attempt. 2-1 Ducks as they regain the lead (should have been a Canuck power-play for goaltender interference but the refs missed it).

The fans are mad and the Canucks are mad so off the ensuing face-off O'Brien drops the gloves with Chipchura. Not much of a fight, a lot of grabbing, clutching and holding.

Two minutes after that fight Hordichuk and Parros drop the gloves but this one was very short as Hordichuk lost his footing right away and the zebras stepped in to break it up.

With 6 minutes remaining the Canucks get a chance to even the score up again as Getzlaf takes his 3rd minor of the game (all of them have been relatively weak calls). Again the Canucks have good puck possession but not much coming out of it. They had no shots on this advantage which makes 3 shots on 5 power-play chances and only 8 shots total. Right at the end of the power-play, Bieksa misses the puck on the point and Koivu and Marchant come down on a 2-on-1. Koivu passes it over to Marchant but it was too high and his weak attempt was stopped by Luongo.

With 2:30 to go in the period Samuelsson and Whitney both get roughing penalties after a whistle resulting in 4-on-4 play for the second time tonight. Right off the face-off Niedermayer turns it over and Henrik makes an amazing behind-the-back pass to Daniel who gets an inside breakaway but he loses the puck making a move.

The period ends with Getzlaf's second period goal standing as the game-winning tally at least for now. This period wasn't as bad for the Canucks but the story has been their inability to generate on the power-play which is really hurting them at this point. Their defensive coverage has been absolutely brutal so they have to clean that up if they want to make a comeback in this game. 2-1 Anaheim.. . will the Canucks finally be able to win a game or at least send it to overtime for a loser point with some late-game heroics?

3rd Period:

2 minutes into the period Glass, Johnson and Bernier have a great cycling shift. Glass gets the puck in the corner, sends the puck in front and Bernier jams it in to cap off a great 4th line shift and more importantly he ties the game at 2-2.

The game slows down here for about 10 minutes after the game is tied and there is not much to report (which is odd, Anaheim has been getting a scoring chance every couple minutes).

With 9 minutes left Burrows is fore-checking and Niedermayer gets a hold of his stick for about 5 or 6 seconds, but it doesn't get called. I know it's a tie game in the third but that was just blatant. On the same shift Henrik steals the puck right in front of Hiller but he is poke-checked before he could do anything.

With 5:30 left Bieksa takes a tripping penalty to cap off his horrendous game. I would say that it shouldn't be called because Niedermayer's wasn't but it was a straight can-open. Crucial 2 minutes... this penalty kill has two points on the line. The Canucks do a great job for about a minute but then Mitchell and Salo both get caught behind the net. Sexton gets the puck in the corner while the Canucks D-men are still scrambling, he passes it to Calder in front who then makes a sweet pass to Koivu at the side of the net. Koivu makes no mistake on a play that Luongo had no chance on and the Ducks take a 3-2 lead.

The shift after the goal the Sedins come out. Daniel has the puck on the face-off circle and finds Burrows behind the defense. He gets two chances right in front of Hiller but is robbed both times.

With 1:45 to go the Sedins get a 3-on-2 with Ehrhoff. Daniel and Ehrhoff push back the defense and then Danny finds Henrik in the slot wide open. Hank goes to his back-hand Hiller does the splits and makes another amazing save.

With just over a minute to go the Canucks pull their goalie. They control until there was 30 seconds left, the Ducks ice it, but they don't take a timeout. It didn't matter as the Ducks cleared off the face-off and the Canucks fail yet again to send the one-goal game to the extra period.

Final Score: Anaheim 3 - 2 Canucks

The Bad:

- Defensive coverage was just horrible all game. Two breakaways, a couple 2-on-1s and a couple more 3-on-2s. Odd-man rushes weren't the only problem; the Canucks looked lost and slow in their own zone making any Anaheim shot look like a scoring chance.

- Special teams were the difference. The Canucks went 0-5 on their power-play and couldn't kill that last penalty which ended up costing them the game.

- Bieksa was just so bad, I'm having trouble putting into words. Defensive gaffs, turnovers, inability to read the play, bad shots, it was all terrible, not to mention the late penalty that crippled his team.

- 20 minute effort, obviously won't get it done. If only 5 of the 20 players are going to show up for the first two periods you aren't going to win many games. What happened to the 60 minute efforts on the first three games of this home-stand?

- Another letdown game. A little while ago the Canucks beat both the Devils and the Flyers only to lose to the worst team in the East. Today, they have their 3-game winning streak snapped by the worst team the West. Do they just get overconfident really quickly, or do they just underestimate teams with bad records. Doesn't matter what it is, it's unacceptable.

The Good:

- The Sedins continue their great play. They both get a point increasing their point streaks to 8 games each, and they were dangerous all game. The one flaw was that they had many glorious opportunities but only put in one. I know they can't score every goal but in a one-goal game chances like they had are the difference.

- Luongo was unbelievable. I felt really bad for him because he made great save after great save and but had no help in front.