Canucks Stay Alive and Force Game 7 in an Incredible Win
By Russell Dawson / Vancouver Canucks
May 1, 2024
With their backs against the wall Coach Schenn decided to really shake up the lineup to try and spark this dried up offense. J.T. Miller would join Petey and Boeser on L1 and reunite the Lotto Line. Jenner would move to L2 and center Kuzie and Garland. The best fourth line in the regular season would finally break apart with Lafferty heading to L3 with Mikheyev and Hoglander on his flanks. Joshua would move to center on the fourth with Di Giuseppe on his left and Arshdeep Bains (who has been deathly quiet since his hot start) on his right. On Defense the Hronek and Hughes pairing that dominated the season would be split with Tanev joining Hughes on the top pair and Hronek moving to the second pair. And finally, probably the most controversial of all those changes was Thatcher Demko was going to again be named the starter for this deciding Game 6. Will all these changes even matter? Only time will tell.
Similar to Game 4, the opening period was scoreless with shots in favour of Dallas 10-7. Vancouver was able to kill of two hooking penalties from Garland and Tanev. It was such a battle of a game to this point with neither team giving an inch.
Unfortunately for Canucks fans Sam Steel would break the goose egg and score with 4:48 left in the second period. Vancouver was unable to score to finish out the frame and it would come down to what could be the the final 20 minutes of the Canucks season.
Arshdeep Bains would take an uncalled for interference penalty early into the third and the Stars would capitalize with Robertson scoring on the Powerplay. Down 2-0 with 15 minutes left, Vancouver needed to bare down if they wanted to keep their season alive.
Alas, Elias Pettersson would be the one to get it started for the Nucks. It was one Oettinger should of had as Petey sniped it from the goal line over the right shoulder. But they don't ask how, they ask how many, don't they. The big opportunity they were waiting for came when Dadanov took a tripping penalty on Chris Tanev. Just seconds into the 5-on-4 Radek Faksa would practically punch Boone Jenner in the face off the faceoff, resulting in almost a full 2 minute 5v3 for the Canucks Powerplay.
They had chances galore on the man advantage, Hoglander just missed the open net on a one tee from Hughes. Petey swung and missed on a rebound with Oettinger out of position. There was even a partial breakaway from Bains that Otter kicked aside. Canucks fans were on the very edge of their seat ready to explode. Finally with the PKers tired and looking to change, the first unit forwards of Petey, Mikheyev and Joshua burst up the ice. Petey carried it wide on Hakanpaa who had just stepped off the bench and flat footed. He speeded past the finnish defender and saw Oettinger committing to a shot. With Joshua and Mikheyev busting to the net everyone jumped to their feet...
... but almost in slow motion you could see Heiskanen was in the lane for a pass to Joshua and Mikheyev was too far behind. So what does Petey do? He slips the triangle under the stick of the Finish D-Man and it slides right to Joshua who drops to one knee and fires the tying goal home. What a moment for the Canucks faithful!
And after all that they were still on the Power Play. With the boys buzzing they started off hot with a 3 on 2 opportunity that resulted in a block shot. The Canucks recovered and continued to work it around to find openings. They found one when Heiskanen and Hakanpaa got tangled up with Petey and it left Mikheyev all alone in front. Joshua fired him a pass and Mikheyev spun to his backhand but Oettinger made the difficult save. Dallas would get it and clear. Joshua made a rush up the ice but turned it over to Wyatt Johnston who started breaking down the ice. He found himself against Miller and tried to burn him wide... It didn't work out well for him:
Miller laid a crushing bodycheck on the up and coming star which got the Nucks the puck back. Quickly they rushed up the ice and low and behold Joshua and Miller found themselves on a two on one versus Lindell. Lindell took away JT for a pass and Joshua fired a hard shot off the right pad of Oettinger which forced him to hit the splits... Where does the rebound land? Right on the stick of Miller. Past the outstretched Oettinger Miller flicked his wrists and fired it into the yawning cage. 3-2 Canucks!!!
But this wasn't exactly a fever dream for Vancouver. Just after the faceoff after the goal Pettersson would take a questionable tripping penalty on Roope Hintz. Dallas was heading to the Power Play and American Airlines Center was going nuts. Dallas pushed hard and it looked like Matt Duchene was gonna tie things up when he had Demko beat... But he fired it off the Post!
Dallas would recover and feed Heiskanen at the point. Boone Jenner leaped at Miro and poked it off his stick. He had a breakaway! With Stars players hot on his tail deadline addition Jenner busted down the ice with a full head of steam. He faked to his backhand then roofed it over the blocker of Oettinger. 4-2 Canucks! This was a fever Dream!
Robertson would be able to score with 3 minutes left but not long after Dallas would take some bad penalties and Hoglander would make them pay with a 5 on 3 goal. 5-3 Canucks. With the goalie pulled Boone Jenner would catch an errant pass and fire it home to ice this incredible game!
Scores Around the League| Game Recaps | April 30, 2024 |
 | 1 - 2 Final - OT
FLA wins series 4-2 |  |
Carolina Hurricanes
(2-4) | | Florida Panthers
(4-2) |
| Game Notes | | For the second year in a row the Florida Panthers have eliminated the Carolina Hurricanes from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Not many predicted this series to go the way it did but then again, not many predicted it right last year as well. This series was tightly contested the whole way through so what better way than to send the final game to Overtime. And of course who other than Sam Reinhart to score the series winning goal literally seconds into OT |
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 | 2 - 6 Final
MTL wins series 4-2 |  |
Toronto Maple Leafs
(2-4) | | Montreal Canadiens
(4-2) |
| Game Notes | | With easily the biggest upset of the playoffs thus far, the Montreal Canadiens have once again defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. The Leafs could not defeat their demons of 2021 and all hell is raining loose on Joseph Woll and Ilya Samsonov. Goaltending was plain and simple the reason the Leafs lost this series. And to only make it more embarrassing for Toronto fans is the fact they lost to a goalie that based off his numbers and age, probably shouldn't be a starting goaltender in the NHL. Full credit goes to Tyler Brennan however. After allowing more than 5 goals for the first 4 games of this series, he dialed in and only allowed a combined 5 in his last two. David Savard was able to making his return from his Concussion in this game as well |
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02-21-2024, 02:04 PM
