IWTG: Canucks come through in Minnesota with a burst of second-period scoring - Vancouver Courier | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Sports

IWTG: Canucks come through in Minnesota with a burst of second-period scoring – Vancouver Courier

Published

5 years ago

 on


“Duke will see Brock play again.”

That was Laurie Boeser during the summer to The Athletic, proclaiming her belief that Duke Boeser would see his son, Brock, play hockey again this season. On Sunday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minnesota, just a short drive up I-35E from Burnsville where Brock grew up, Duke got to see Brock play again.

article continues below

It was far from certain that would be the case during the summer, when Duke wound up in critical care after a massive heart attack at the end of July. He was in the ICU for four weeks. When Boeser finally joined the Canucks in mid-September, Duke had just started eating again on his own the previous week.

For Brock, his father and mother are his inspiration. He describes his father as a warrior, battling with a series of ailments: Parkinson’s Disease, lung cancer, a traumatic brain injury caused by a car accident, then the recurrence of his cancer, which led to the heart attack. That’s not to mention all the complications that have come up along the way: pneumonia, infections, and other illnesses.

Duke must be a warrior to face all of that and still make it out to see his son play against the Wild on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Laurie is incredible. Brock has said he wouldn’t be able to handle any of this without her and everything she’s done for the family. She worked multiple jobs while Brock was growing up and still works full-time while taking care of Duke. She holds everything together through all of the trials and tribulations, encouraging her son to focus on the positive and all the good things in the world. And she was the one performing CPR after Duke’s heart attack before paramedics arrived.

In a way, the result of this game didn’t matter in the slightest. Just the fact that Duke could be there to watch Brock was enough. On the other hand, the result couldn’t have mattered more: surely Brock wanted to win one for his dad.

Like Duke, the Canucks pulled through.

On its own, hockey is meaningless. All sports are. There’s no inherent meaning to them; the only meaning that sports have is the meaning you bring to them. On Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota, the game between the Canucks and Wild meant everything. And I watched this game.

  • The Canucks have had some issues defensively of late. The technical term for the way they’ve been playing is “loosey-goosey,” but I don’t want to bog you down with a detailed systems breakdown. Against the Minnesota Wild, however, the Canucks clamped down hard for most of the game, allowing just three shots on goal in the first period and just 24 total. They got shelled late in the third period as the Wild pushed for the comeback, but overall they were much improved.
  • The two teams couldn’t stay out of the penalty box in this game, kicked off by Antoine Roussel crashing into Devan Dubnyk for a goaltender interference penalty. Seven seconds later, Mikko Koivu tripped Chris Tanev, taking the Wild off the power play, then Jordan Greenway elbowed Alex Edler just over a minute later to give the Canucks a power play. Just as the Wild killed off that penalty, Jonas Brodin launched the puck over the glass to put them shorthanded again. And that was just the first period.
  • All told, the Wild took eight minor penalties and the Canucks took five, but the power plays barely affected the result of the game. The Wild went 0-for-5 on the power play, partly because they kept taking penalties to end their power plays. The Canucks wasted a long 5-on-3 and were themselves 0-for-5 before finally getting a goal on their sixth power play. They went 1-for-8 in total.
  • That goal came seconds after a 4-on-4. Tim Schaller came out of the penalty box to put the Canucks on the power play and booked it to the bench to bring on Antoine Roussel. Chris Tanev tried to get the bench too to bring on someone for the power play, but couldn’t even make it in time. Tanev was still on the ice when Quinn Hughes’s point shot was tipped in by Elias Pettersson in front.
  • Pettersson doesn’t play net front much on the power play for obvious reasons, but his nifty tip-in suggests maybe that’s not the worst idea. He was only there because of the awkwardness of the line change from 4-on-4 to the power play, but looked at home like he was Tomas Holmstrom.
  • That goal sparked four minutes of unbridled offence: the Wild responded with a goal of their own when Jacob Markstrom gave up an uncharacteristically big rebound off his chest and Marcus Foligno was first to the puck to bang it in. You could tell it was uncharacteristic because pretty much every Canucks skater just stopped playing after the initial shot, assuming Markstrom would swallow it up.
  • 13 seconds later, the Canucks retook the lead. Tanner Pearson threw a puck towards the net from the boards and it went off Matt Dumba’s stick and snuck into the crease behind Dubnyk. Bo Horvat popped up from behind the net like the Duck Hunt Dog and poked the puck over the goal line.
  • One minute after that, Troy Stecher made it 3-1. Boeser and Pettersson freed up the puck on the forecheck and then J.T. Miller went to work along the boards, shaking free from Ryan Suter with a quick cutback, then sending a fantastic pass diagonally back to Stecher, who had so much room for activities, such as stepping up to the top of the faceoff circle to beat Dubnyk inside the near post.
  • There was a scary moment early in the third period. On a delayed Canucks penalty (seriously, so many penalties), Quinn Hughes moved to check Joel Eriksson Ek as he cut behind the net, but he tripped on Markstrom’s goalie stick and went crashing head first into Eriksson Ek and then the boards. Fortunately, he popped right up and appeared to be okay.

View post on imgur.com

  • Markstrom was magnificent to finish off the game. He didn’t have to make many saves throughout the rest of the game, but then the Wild piled on seven shots in the final five minutes, seemingly all of them great scoring chances. Markstrom was kicking out his feet like a Ukrainian Hopak dancer, turning aside chance after chance to maintain the two-goal lead.
  • It was a full game’s worth of highlights in the span of just a few minutes, capped off by a big glove save on Mats Zuccarello to really hammer it home: the Wild weren’t going to score again.

View post on imgur.com

  • Horvat added some punctuation to the game at the very end. It wasn’t an exclamation point, as that’s a little too exciting for a long-distance empty netter. Maybe it was a simple period or a relaxed set of ellipses. Horvat lofted the puck out on the backhand and Carson Soucy, likely hoping he could milk it for an icing, skated casually back, only to see the puck curve on its side and go into the empty net. With that curve, maybe it was a comma.
  • With the win, the Canucks have successfully rescued the road trip. Even if they lose on Tuesday in Winnipeg, it’s hard to be too upset with a 2-3-0 road trip after a 7-game winning streak. It’s a lot easier to forget two ugly losses in Florida when you can say that you’ve won 9 of your last 11 games.
  • Another neat trick: the win leapfrogged the Canucks over the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights into third in the Pacific Division, which could be a complete gong show right up until the playoffs. Who’s going to make the playoffs out of the Pacific? Who knows? I sure don’t. Like Zoidberg, why not the Canucks?
     

Let’s block ads! (Why?)



Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Sports

Red Wings sign Moritz Seider to 7-year deal worth nearly $60M

Published

7 hours ago

 on

September 19, 2024

By

 

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.

The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.

Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.

He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.

Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.

Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.

Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.

The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.

Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.

Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.

___

AP NHL:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Veterans Tyson Beukeboom, Karen Paquin lead Canada’s team at WXV rugby tournament

Published

8 hours ago

 on

September 19, 2024

By

 

Veterans Tyson Beukeboom and Karen Paquin will lead Canada at the WXV 1 women’s rugby tournament starting later this month in the Vancouver area.

WXV 1 includes the top three teams from the Women’s Six Nations (England, France and Ireland) and the top three teams from the Pacific Four Series (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States).

Third-ranked Canada faces No. 4 France, No. 7 Ireland and No. 1 England in the elite division of the three-tiered WXV tournament that runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 12 in Vancouver and Langley, B.C. No. 2 New Zealand and the eighth-ranked U.S. make up the six-team WVX 1 field.

“Our preparation time was short but efficient. This will be a strong team,” Canada coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement. “All the players have worked very hard for the last couple of weeks to prepare for WXV and we are excited for these next three matches and for the chance to play on home soil here in Vancouver against the best rugby teams in the world.

“France, Ireland and England will each challenge us in different ways but it’s another opportunity to test ourselves and another step in our journey to the Rugby World Cup next year.”

Beukeboom serves as captain in the injury absence of Sophie de Goede. The 33-year-old from Uxbridge, Ont., earned her Canadian-record 68th international cap in Canada’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in May at the Pacific Four Series.

Twenty three of the 30 Canadian players selected for WXV 1 were part of that Pacific Four Series squad.

Rouet’s roster includes the uncapped Asia Hogan-Rochester, Caroline Crossley and Rori Wood.

Hogan-Rochester and Crossley were part of the Canadian team that won rugby sevens silver at the Paris Olympics, along with WXV teammates Fancy Bermudez, Olivia Apps, Alysha Corrigan and Taylor Perry. Wood is a veteran of five seasons at UBC.

The 37-year-old Paquin, who has 38 caps for Canada including the 2014 Rugby World Cup, returns to the team for the first time since the 2021 World Cup.

Canada opens the tournament Sept. 29 against France at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver before facing Ireland on Oct. 5 at Willoughby Stadium at Langley Events Centre, and England on Oct. 12 at B.C. Place.

The second-tier WXV 2 and third-tier WXV 3 are slated to run Sept. 27 to Oct. 12, in South Africa and Dubai, respectively.

WXV 2 features Australia, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales while WXV 3 is made up of Fiji, Hong Kong, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Samoa and Spain.

The tournament has 2025 World Cup qualification implications, although Canada, New Zealand and France, like host England, had already qualified by reaching the semifinals of the last tournament.

Ireland, South Africa, the U.S., Japan, Fiji and Brazil have also booked their ticket, with the final six berths going to the highest-finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified through regional tournaments.

Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team WXV 1 Squad

Forwards

Alexandria Ellis, Ottawa, Stade Français Paris (France); Brittany Kassil, Guelph, Ont., Guelph Goats; Caroline Crossley, Victoria, Castaway Wanderers; Courtney Holtkamp, Rimbey, Alta., Red Deer Titans Rugby; DaLeaka Menin, Vulcan, Alta., Exeter Chiefs (England); Emily Tuttosi, Souris, Man., Exeter Chiefs (England); Fabiola Forteza, Quebec City, Stade Bordelais (France); Gabrielle Senft, Regina, Saracens (England); Gillian Boag, Calgary, Gloucester-Hartpury (England); Julia Omokhuale, Calgary, Leicester Tigers (England); Karen Paquin, Quebec City, Club de rugby de Quebec; Laetitia Royer, Loretteville, Que., ASM Romagnat (France); McKinley Hunt, King City, Ont., Saracens (England); Pamphinette Buisa, Gatineau, Que., Ottawa Irish; Rori Wood, Sooke, B.C., College Rifles RFC; Sara Cline, Edmonton, Leprechaun Tigers; Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England);

Backs

Alexandra Tessier, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., Exeter Chiefs (England); Alysha Corrigan, Charlottetown, P.E.I., CRFC; Asia Hogan-Rochester, Toronto, Toronto Nomads; Claire Gallagher, Caledon, Ont., Leicester Tigers (England); Fancy Bermudez, Edmonton, Saracens (England); Julia Schell, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England); Justine Pelletier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que, Stade Bordelais (France); Mahalia Robinson, Fulford, Que., Town of Mount Royal RFC; Olivia Apps, Lindsay, Ont., Lindsay RFC; Paige Farries, Red Deer, Alta., Saracens (England); Sara Kaljuvee, Ajax, Ont., Westshore RFC; Shoshanah Seumanutafa, White Rock, B.C., Counties Manukau (New Zealand); Taylor Perry, Oakville, Ont., Exeter Chiefs (England).

—

Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Vancouver Canucks star goalie Thatcher Demko working through rare muscle injury

Published

8 hours ago

 on

September 19, 2024

By

 

PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.

The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.

He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.

Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.

He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.

Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version