We have to start every sentence right now with the phrase "I know its Pre-Season...but..." the Canucks are 5 - 0. For an exhibition game, this one had some excitement, and definitely some drama.
The Canucks jumped out to a quick lead after Kyle Wellwood put home a penalty shot just 3 and a half minutes into the first period, Wellwood made a nice deke on Flames netminder Curtis Mcelhinney to give the Canucks the 1 - 0 lead. Daniel Sedin added his 2nd of the Pre-Season on a feed from Henrik, Cory Schneider wasn't very busy in the first period at all as the Flames were sleepwalking through most of the first.
The Canucks extended their lead to 3 - 0, but the Flames wouldn't go away. Goals from Curtis Glencross, Jamie Lundmark, and Jay Bouwmeester knotted the game at 3 when the Canucks ran into penalty trouble. The Flames capitalized on the man advantage on a one timer by Nigel Dawes that was re-directed by Olli Jokinen with 7 minutes to go in regulation.
The Canucks were pressing late, scrambling to get the equalizer, which they thought they had when Mason Raymond slid the puck through Mcelhinney's pads with 10 seconds left on the clock, but the goal was disallowed. With 10 seconds left on the clock and the faceoff in the neautral zone, it was all but over - for everyone except Daniel Sedin.
Christian Ehrhoff fed Daniel in the slot with about 2 seconds left on the clock, and he made no mistake, sliding it under Mcelhinney with 0.2 ticks left - sending the game to a shootout.
Cody Hodgson opened the scoring in the shootout, and Daniel Sedin scored the Shootout winner on a laser beam that beat Mcelhinney top corner to seal the victory for the Canucks.
Next up: San Jose Sharks vs. Vancouver Canucks - Wednesday, September 23rd - 7PM SNET
Our take: The Canucks dominated the first half of the game, but they showed signs of slipping back into some bad habits from last year. It's a good thing that these habits are showing themselves now, so that the coaching staff can fix them before the games start to mean something next week. The two standouts from the Canucks point of view had to be Daniel Sedin and Christrian Ehrhoff. Daniel having 2 goals, tying the game late, and sniping the shootout winner was the best player on the ice. Ehrhoff was skating well and made a great first pass all night.
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