Confident Canucks Get Big OT Win in Cowtown

Who are these guys? 2 games, 11 goals?? 2 games, 4 fights?? How long have we heard, the Canucks can't score....the Canucks can't fight, let alone win a scrap....the Canucks can't comeback when they're down.....the Canucks are the Minnesota Wild of the North.....

Are these guys fun to watch, or what? Come back from 3-1, 4-3 deficits to win one in Calgary's barn! How good were the Mitchell/Iginla and Rypien/Prust fights? How good was it to see a Canuck (Hordichuk) go after the other team's heavyweight (Roy) when the Canucks were down 2 goals? How good was it to see Mitchell/Iginla take off their lids when they were squaring off?

Let's leave the scoring for later, let's talk about about grit. The Canucks are down 3-1 10minutes into the first and what do we see? We see a game Willie Mitchell taking on the heart and soul of the Flames, Jarome Iginla. Two good Canadian kids, droppin the mitts, removing the lids and squarring off and goin at it! Mitchell got the upperhand early, getting Iginla's jersey over Iginla's head, and proceeded to pummel Iggy. Iggy was in trouble, but he never gives up. Iginla escaped the jersey over his head, and landed a good left to the chin of Mitchell and dropped him. Great fight, both did well.

Calgary was fully deserving of their 3-1 lead after one. But after the Mitchell/Iginla fight, the Canucks settled down. You could sense that if the Canucks could weather the storm, the tide could turn.

Flashback to Thursday night's game, Canucks up 3-0 in the 2nd period, Flame bruiser Andre Roy wants to scrap with Hordichuk, Hordichuk ignores him, not wanting to take a chance on changing the momentum. Roy is frustrated, Calgary goes on to lose 6-zip.

Sat. night, Canucks still down 3-1, 2 1/2 minutes into the 2nd period, Hordichuk challenges Roy. Roy doesn't know what to do. He's too stupid. You could see the look on Roy's face, "Ahhhh, we are winning 3-1, not sure if I should fight, supposed to be the tough guy, but not sure if it's the right time cause we got the lead....ahhh...I don't want to seem like I don't want to go....ahhh, who cares, I'll drop the gloves". Despite it wasn't much of a scrap, the Canucks saw something that they haven't seen in a long time. They see one of their own, challenging the other team's tough guy to dance. Having somebody that will go with anybody in the league, makes everybody on the team play bigger, tougher.

And then the creme de la creme. The first face off after the Hordichuk/Roy fight, Rick Rypien squares off with a fellow very tough middleweight, Brandon Prust. Prust had 248 penalty minutes with the Quad City Flames of the AHL last year. Prust is no stranger to pugilism.

You gotta love how Rypien squares off. There is no bobbin or weavin, he just puts his dukes up, stays still, sees an opening and the fists start to fly. Rypien's fight was a thing of beauty. After the initial charge, Rypien got a hold of Prust's jersey with his right hand. While most just grab the jersey and throw punches with the free hand, Rypien was punching with this right hand, while holding on to his jersey. Prust was getting 1-2's like rapid fire.....Rypien is a fun to watch. We would have seen this last year too, if he wasn't injured for so long.

Of course, I am sure all of the bleeding heart liberals in this country turned the channel when the fights were going on.....

Now, back to the rest of the game.

After Rypien served his fighting major, what does Canuck coach V do? He puts Rypien/Johnson/Hordichuk line on the on the ice. Salo kept the puck in from the right point, Johnson received the pass off the boards taking the puck behind the net drawing two Flames to him and hit Rypien, who was all alone in front of the net, with a beautiful pass. Rypien pops his 2nd goal in two games to make it 3-2.

58 seconds later, off a nice rush from the speedy Burrows/Kesler/Hansen line, Hansen took a shot that squeaked thru Kipper and Kesler pushed it in after forcefully driving to the net. This line looks great and has given the Flames fits for two games in a row. Did anyone see Flames' coach Keenan's face after this goal. Keenan could feel that the Flames psyche wasn't well, and had a face of a very worried man.

Flames Cammeleri made it 4-3, to give the Flames a 4-3 lead that they took with them into the dressing room after 2.

There is a confidence about this Canuck bunch. Down 3-1, down 4-3, you can tell that they feel that they can come back and win. The don't seem fragile at all.

Sure enough in the 3rd, the Sedin-Sedin-Bernier line comes thru. Hank finding Daniel in front of the net from the behind the right side of Kipper's net, Daniel made no mistake. How Hank got that pass thru Giordanno, I don't know. The one thing I do know is Giordanno shound have had Daniel. 4-4.

Then we got Bertuzzi being Bertuzzi. Flame fan is seeing what Canuck fan saw all too often. They see a guy with world class talent, doing something that is border line, and putting his team at the mercy of the referee's discretion. While Bertuzzi had scored on a nice deflection to make it 2-1 in the first, he also took a bad interefrence penalty in the opening period to negate a Flames power play. Now, with less than two minutes to go in the third, he was behind Johnson as the two were racing into the corner for a puck. Bertuzzi, in Bertuzzi-like fashion, nudges Johnson enough from behind to send him hard into the glass. There is no question that Johnson came off the glass flopping like a fish out of water, and definitely embelished the impact of the hit, but by Bertuzzi doing this he is leaving it to chance as to whether the referee's will make the call. And sure enough the ref's called him on it. Bertuzzi cost his team big time.

While the Canucks did not score on the ensuing power play that lasted until 30 seconds in OT, they were all over the Flames.

This is where Flames fan has an arguement. Just under a minute into OT, Burrows was back checking. He dove to try and poke check a Flame from behind. He hit the skate of the Flame and tripped him, no call. Flames fans were rightfully incensed. Especially just after this, Burrow picked up a deflected Cammelleri back pass and rushed up the ice with Pavol Demitra on a 2-1. A 2-1 because Flame d-man Phaneuf was guilty of pinching at the wrong time. Burrows was on the left side, Demitra on the right. D-man Robyn Regehr tried to do what d-men should do on a 2-1, he tried to tie up the open man (Demitra) while letting Kipper handle the shooter Burrows. Burrows went in on Kipper, deked left then went right, but lost control of the puck with Kipper down and out. Fortunately for the Canucks, the puck slide right to Demitra, who wasn't properly tied up by Regehr, game over.

The majority of people thought this team would be boring to watch, more than likely not very competitive. At least for the first two games, the Canucks are proving the pundits wrong.

Notes: While Demitra scored the OT winner, he has been invisible for the most part of the first two games. So has linemate Taylor Pyatt. Where has Demitra's acceleration gone? Pyatt looks like he's choked about being taken off the Sedin line. Hopefully the Pyatt/Demitra/Raymond second line just needs some time to get some chemistry.
And from the say it isn't so category, tell me that Bieksa's injury won't be serious. I am afraid it is. He has been sent to Vancouver for tests on his knee, but it's not looking good. Hard luck after last years calf muscle laceration that kept him out for most of the season.