Washington Capitals lose second straight 7-4 against Vancouver Canucks -NHL Match Update
After winning seven straight to kick of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, Washington has now lost two straight as the Vancouver Canucks outshot and outscored the Capitals, 7-4, on Saturday night, October 29, 2011, at the sold-out
Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Vancouver snapped their two-game losing streak which game in Edmonton against the Oilers, followed by a 3-0 shutout from the St. Louis Blues, which really disappointed the Canucks fan base.
Canucks head coach, Alain Vigneault, hopes that his team can continue with the momentum of scoring goals when the team really needs them.
"It's so important to get scoring by committee", Canucks coach, Alain Vigneault, said. "That's how you win on a consistent basis. For our team tonight to have both (Lapierre's) line and (Manny Malhotra's) line come up and score key goals at key times, it
was really important, and we're going to hope that that continues moving forward here".
The home team dominated in the opening period as Maxim Lapierre inaugurated the scoring 3:31 in; followed by Alex Ovechkin to level the match, but Christopher Higgins and Alexander Edler scored two more for the Canucks, back-to-back, both on power play opportunities.
Ovechkin scored his second of the night 1:25 into the second on an early power play as Dan Hamhuis was penalised, 26 seconds into the period for slashing with a minor. Mike Knuble made the equaliser to put Washington back on track, but it was Alexander Edler
who also scored another to keep Vancouver alive.
Marcus Johansson levelled the match once again with a little more than two minutes to play, sending both teams into the third and final period tied up 4-4.
Seeing the pattern that was developing in the match, it was Vancouver’s turn to take control yet again, which is exactly what they did.
"All the things that seemed to be struggling worked well for us tonight," said Higgins.
Roberto Luongo also came out strong in the last 20 minutes by keeping Washington out of the net.
"It was frustrating", Ovechkin said. "In the third, he was unbelievable".
Henrik Sedin and Christopher Higgins scored two straight a little over a minute apart while Maxim Lapierre secured the match with his second of the night halfway through.
Vancouver will now takeoff for a six-game road trip, starting off against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, while the Washington Capitals return home to host the struggling Anaheim Ducks the same day.
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