This isn’t a game that the Vancouver Canucks should have lost.
They were at home, possessed a two-goal lead going into the third period, and were up against a Detroit Red Wings team that is both missing several key players and was in the midst of a four-game losing streak. Nevertheless, Detroit rallied en route to a 3-2 overtime victory.
Teemu Pulkkinen cut the Canucks’ lead in half early in the third period and Tomas Tatar capitalized on a power-play opportunity less than three minutes later. However, it was Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek and Gustav Nyquist that were the heroes tonight.
Mrazek turned aside 30 shots, but he also made an impressive pass to Nyquist in order to set up the game-winning goal:
For Detroit this was a much needed two points, especially seeing as it was earned without the services of Pavel Datsyuk, Mike Green, Kyle Quincey, Brad Richards, and Johan Franzen. At the same time, this was another troubling game for Vancouver.
The Canucks are now 0-2-3 at home. The silver lining is that Vancouver is 3-0-0 on the road, but of course it’s not likely that the Canucks will go far this season if they continue to struggle at the Rogers Arena.
They just have one more chance to earn a victory at home this month ... against Montreal.