Vancouver Canucks to win comfortably against Minnesota Wild - NHL Preview
The Vancouver Canucks are going strong as they continue to challenge for a top spot in the Western Conference. The Canucks will face off against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 as they visit the Xcel Energy Center.
Vancouver is second in the Western Conference with a 33-15-5 record and will be one of the favourites heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canucks have recently developed a penchant for taking games right through to the shootout and have become specialists in that aspect of the game.
Vancouver’s last five games have all gone beyond regular time with four of those ending in a shootout. The Canucks last three games ended in shootouts with two of those ending in victories.
Against Minnesota Wild the team will be hoping for a more comfortable match than their last game where they emerged 4-3 victors after a tough shootout.
Vancouver were 3-1 up in the first period against the Nashville Predators but contrived to give away two quick fire goals in the second period as the Predators mounted a brilliant comeback attempt.
The game ended tied at 3-3 after overtime and in the shootout Alexander Edler beat Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne to give the Canucks their second straight shootout victory.
"We're going to be involved in a lot of tight games," Goaltender Roberto Luongo said. "We gotta find out ways to win. The last couple have been a shootout, which are nice, but that's the kind of hockey we're going to be involved in especially coming down
the stretch."
On the other hand Minnesota Wild is struggling.
Although maintaining their position at eighth in the Western Conference, Minnesota is in danger of dropping out of the playoff spots if they lose this game.
The Wild are equal on points with ninth placed Phoenix Coyotes and with their offence failing to score more than a single goal in their recent two games they might face a thrashing at the hands of Canucks.
Minnesota enter the game on the back of a stunning 3-1 defeat at the hands of Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets have one of the worst records in the league and the loss led Coach Mike Yeo to express his disappointment to the players.
"The reality is that I don't think we deserved to win the game," Yeo said. "It's a game of one-on-one battles and they got the better of us -- by a large margin -- in that department tonight."
Vancouver will be favourites for the win and bettors can get brilliant odds of 2.22 on a Canucks win in the regulation period.
Tags: