Vancouver Canucks edge past New York Islanders 4-3 in O.T.
Ryan Kesler lit the lamp twice, and his second goal on the final shot of the shootout, carried the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
An excited Kesler said after the game, "They had a lot of pushback. But we found a way to win this game and that's the important thing."
Kevin Bieksa and Alexandre Burrows also scored for Vancouver, who have now gone 17 consecutive play-offs (14-0-3) without a loss in regulation time. Roberto Luongo was strong, stopping 38 shots in his side’s win.
Jack Hillen and John Tavares also netted a goal each for Vancouver. Blake Comeau had a goal and an assist for New York, who came into the contest having won four of their last five games. Islanders’ Goaltender Kevin Poulin made
48 saves in a losing effort.
The Canucks opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period in the fifth minute. It came when Daniel Sedin slapped a shot on net from the right side that bounced off Burrows, who snuck the puck past the goalie.
New York was out-shot 20-9, but got one nice chance in the first period. Michael Grabner came in front of the net on a breakaway and fired a shot, but Luongo stopped it with his right pad.
In the ninth minute of the second period, Comeau had another chance to tie the game for Islanders, but his hard wrist shot rang off the left post. New York attempted to continually go high in the second period. However, Luongo
was sharp, as he made a nice save with his left shoulder on Tavares’ hard slap shot.
"They played well," Luongo said. "It was a tougher game than it looked to be."
New York finally got on the board and tied the game at 1-1 in 16th minute of the second period. Seconds later their power-play finished, and Hillen banged a slap shot from the right point into the net.
However, Vancouver got ahead again and took the lead 2-1 in the last minute of the middle stanza. Mikael Samuelsson gave a backhand pass from the left side to the slot, where Kesler ripped a wrist shot for his 24th goal of the
2010-11 season.
New York equalised the scoring again at 2-2 during a power-play in the fourth minute of the third period. Rob Schremp, from the left point, sent a saucer pass to the outside right circle where Tavares one-timed it with a wrist
shot from a hard angle to beat Luongo.
The Islanders gained their first lead of the game at 3-2 with 5 and a half minutes left in third period, when Comeau snapped a slap-shot from the left point through a screen and into the left corner of the net.
That lead only lasted 24 seconds, as Vancouver tied it at 3-all. Bieksa, from a sharp angle at the right side, slipped the puck to the front. It deflected off a New York defender and went past the Islander’s netminder to send
the game into overtime.
Bieska, who was ecstatic after the win, told reporters, "We're winning different ways. I wouldn't say this went our way tonight. We didn't play as well as we wanted and we didn't execute at times. We had a lot of turnovers (15)
which isn't characteristic of us, but we had to stay with it and grind one out.”
Kevin Poulin was confident and calm in goal. He faced 20 shots in the opening period, while the New York defensive core held Vancouver to 10 shots in the middle period. The Islanders’ goaltender faced a total of 51 shots in
the game. There were no goals scored in overtime. Both teams had opportunities to get a lead and seal the win but could not capitalise.
Luongo was pivotal in Vancouver’s win, as he blocked shots from PA Parenteau and John Tavares in the shootout, but could not stop Rob Schremp’s shootout goal. In the last shootout, Kesler rushed in on net, slowed down
and flicked a shot into the right corner of the net to seal the win at 4-3.
Canucks coach Alain Vigneault admitted that it had been a tough game for his side, but they had shown character. He said, "The two best teams over the last 10 games, and we knew it wasn't going to be easy. They competed hard
and made us earn every inch out there."
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