Dan Hamhuis scores overtime winner as Vancouver Canucks beats Phoenix Coyotes at its home ice
Vancouver’s making a comeback, not that it really needs to, winning some important games as it nears the playoffs in one of Canucks’ most spectacular seasons in history. Dan Hamhuis punctured Phoenix Coyotes dream bubble of winning on Tuesday night by scoring
an overtime goal, extending Vancouver’s winning streak to 3, at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona, in an extremely close 4-3 encounter.
The over 12,000 crowed witnessed their team conquering the first period.
Eric Belanger scored early in the opening minutes of the first period, unassisted on Roberto Luongo, who just returned after a game’s rest, then dishing it out to Shane Doan on a power-play midway through taking an early lead of 2-0 for Coyotes.
Dan Hamhuis got his first of two within 15 seconds of Doan’s last shot, decreasing the lead to 2-1 at the end of the first.
Vancouver changed its strategy a bit, taking over the second period and repeating exactly what Phoenix did but in a more aggressive manner.
Coyotes’ goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov, made a hefty 35 saves, four more than Luongo, still it wasn’t enough to hold down Henrik Sedin and Sami Salo who tied and took the lead, all in three minutes.
Belanger picked up his second assist of the night, and the most important for Phoenix when he eyed an opportunity for Lauri Korpikoski, bouncing the puck from the high slot in front of him, who was already skating at high speed towards the net, and firing
it over Luongo’s right side to tie the match with only 43 seconds left to go in the second.
It remained equal throughout the final 20 minutes, forcing overtime.
Hamhuis was able to get Vancouver’s one and only attempt in through Bryzgalov with an assist by both the Sedin twins, making it the game winner with 2:47 left in OT.
Phoenix which was at the number 3 spot in the Western Conference post All-Star Game weekend is continuing to fall since then, now standing at a fragile 7th spot where all teams are either one point ahead or behind.
It has some tough games coming up, including two against Calgary Flames while even if Vancouver loses a few, it would still be number one, sitting at the top with 93 points is more than enough now.
Tags: