The Vancouver Canucks felt their team was
underperforming, so they fired head coach Travis green and replaced him with
Bruce Beaudreau. The Canucks have responded with 6 consecutive wins, including
a 5-2 victory over the Sharks at SAP Center on Thursday night. The Sharks
dropped their third game on their current 7-game home stand, allowing the
Canucks to draw with a point of San Jose in the Pacific Division standings.
The up and down Sharks lost for the second consecutive game, after
dropping a 3-1 stinker to the expansion Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. San Jose
continued to struggle offensively, and gave up too many goals to an opponent
that was simply more efficient with the puck.
The Canucks grabbed a
2-goal lead midway through the period. The scouting report on Adin Hill must
have called for shot from the left dot.
Brock Boeser staked the
Canucks to the 1-0 lead 12:41 into the contest when he scored his 8th of the
season. The Canucks right winger sat perched on the left dot, waiting for
Tanner Pearson to feed him the puck. When Pearson finally obliged. Boeser
ripped a shot past Hill and Brent Burns was late to cut off the shooting lane.
A suspect kneeing penalty to Logan Couture, gave the Canucks a power
play at 15:01, and it would bite the Sharks. Bo Horvat ripped a JT Miller feed
from the exact same spot that Boeser scored his goal from. Once again, Burns
was late to make a difference as he loitered around the top of the crease.
Timo Meier halved the Canucks lead with his 12th goal of the season
and 100th of his career with 2:38 left in the period. The Sharks forward
uncorked a shot from the outside of the right circle, finding a seam between
goaltender Thatcher Demko and the right post. The Sharks couldn't afford to
fall behind by three goals, so it was imperative for them to score.
The Sharks controlled most of the 2nd period in terms of puck possession and
shots on goal. It took the Canucks 13 minutes before they would register their
1st shot on goal in the period. The
Andrew Cogliano made it a 1-goal
game again at the 8:29 mark of the 3rd period when he took a lead pass from
Lane Pederson as he raced up the ice. The veteran forward snapped a shot on the
fly from 25-feet out, beating Demko for his 3rd goal of the season.
San Jose had a golden opportunity to tie the game
with 2:30 to play when Burns teamed up with Logan Couture on a play in the
slot, but the puck was either stopped by Demko or a Canucks defender. Vancouver
grabbed the puck, marched up ice and buried it. JT Miller lifted a shot that
sailed over Hill's glove hand for the 4-2 lead.
Jason Dickinson capped
the scoring with an empty net goal with a minute remaining.
Game
Notes: * Jayden Halbgewachs made his NHL debut for the Sharks,
after being recalled from the Barracuda on Tuesday. Halbgewachs was signed as a
free agent by the Sharks in December of 2017. Halbgewachs wore sweater #89. *
Canucks winger Vasily Podklzin took a puck to the face early in the 2nd period.
He would miss the rest of the period, but returned to start the 3rd period.
Guillaume Brisebois was also injured in the middle period, but he did not
return.
* Lane Pederson recorded his 1st points of the season, when he
assisted on Andrew Cogliano's goal. The centerman has played in his 18th game
this season.
* The Canucks game plan was clearly to shoot high on
Hill. All four goals were of the top shelf variety.
* On a night when
the Sharks needed to control the puck, they turned in a 43% efficiency
performance in the faceoff circle. Their 20-of-47 win night didn't help them.
They also failed to generate much time on the power play. They would finish the
game 0-for-1 on the power play. Vancover finished 1-for-3 on the man advantage.
