Vancouver Canucks thrash San Jose Sharks, 7-3, in Game 2 of Conference Finals: NHL Play-offs Update
The Vancouver Canucks came even stronger for Game 2 than they did previously in Game 1 and thrashed the San Jose Sharks, 7-3, in the second match of the National Hockey League (NHL) play-offs Western Conference finals at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British
Columbia on Wednesday.
It looks like Vancouver has finally learned from their previous mistakes made in the previous series when teams like Chicago almost bounced back and eliminated them. The top seed of the Western Conference, Vancouver took advantage of those multiple power-play
opportunities, which they missed in Game 1. The Canucks performance on Wednesday night, truly looked as if the best team in the league was playing, which had the packed crowd in their home stadium, roaring in joy throughout the match.
San Jose’s All-Star rookie, Logan Couture, opened the scoring in the first period for his seventh of the post-season on Vancouver’s first penalty of the match. Aaron Rome was sent packing for two minutes for tripping Joe Pavelski, which gave San Jose the
added-man advantage. Daniel Sedin levelled the match on a power-play goal in the midway, while Raffi Torres scored his second of the play-offs' 39 seconds after Sedin, to give Vancouver a 2-1 lead.
Patrick Marleau had the final say when he made the equalising shot for the third power-play goal of the initial period.
Kevin Bieksa scored the only goal in the nail-biting second period to give the Canucks a lead in the game once again. With 2:02 minutes remaining, Bieksa and Patrick Marleau exchanged fists with each other and were awarded with a five minute major penalty,
each which would have both teams handicapped entering the final period. San Jose gave the home team something to rejoice about when Ben Eager was booked, with 22 seconds remaining, giving the Canucks a 4-on-3 advantage in the opening minutes of the final period.
San Jose gave over 46 minutes of penalty time in the third period alone as a number of ten minute misconducts were awarded. Vancouver went on a shooting spree as Christopher Higgins and Daniel Sedin both scored on power-play opportunities while Aaron Rome
and Mason Raymond added two more to take the score out of reach with less than four minutes remaining in the last period. Ben Eager potted his first of the season at the 17:27 mark, but still down by four meant no time left for recovery.
Both teams had nearly the same amount of chances at the net, but San Jose gave way too many penalties which Vancouver felt free to take advantage. Game 3 will be an exciting one when the Canucks and Sharks travel to San Jose on Friday for what might be a
chance for the Sharks to finally start catching up.
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