Hockey
Booth Net’s A Pair
Playing yet another road game, the Canucks are aware that every loss could quickly put an end any playoff hopes they might have, but the win in Minny keeps any hopes alive.
Booth scored a pair (two) of unassisted goals while Canuck starter Eddie Lack made 29 saves in the 5-2 win over Minny in St Paul.
Burrows told the media following the game “It’s huge, we’re in a do-or-die position and if we would have lost this game we probably would have been out of the race.”
Shots were 31-19 for Minnesota who got goals from Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter, but managed to lose its third straight on home ice.
Booth scored for the second consecutive game after going scoreless in his previous 32.
On his first goal, Booth took the puck the length of the ice after a faceoff and fired it past Darcy Kuemper.
Booth’s second goal broke a 1-1 tie in the second period and came after Jared Spurgeon whiffed on a pass in the Wild zone, leading to a bad turnover and a point-blank look for Booth.
“We didn’t generate a ton of shots, but we were able to capitalize on the ones we did,” Booth said.
Minnesota, currently holding the first wild-card spot in the West, controlled play for most of the first two periods, but failed to capitalize on four power plays and fell behind 3-1.
Even though his team was generating chances early, Wild coach Mike Yeo was nervous.
“Especially in that first period, we’re out chancing them, we’re outshooting them, but still. Just didn’t quite have the right feel,” he said.
Ilya Bryzgalov took over for the slumping Kuemper after two periods. Kuemper allowed three goals in 12 shots, the fifth time in his last seven start he’s allowed at least three goals.
“Don’t feel good about that one,” Kuemper said. “Obviously we were controlling the play and to find ourselves down 3-1, yeah I’ve got to help the guys out a little bit better.”
The switch didn’t get Minnesota going. Vancouver killed an early third period power play, and then put the game away on Sedin’s goal at 11:12 to make it 4-1.
“I didn’t think we played great, but we stuck with it and at the end we came out with a big win,” Sedin said. “For sure, it’s something to build.”
The goal was Sedin’s first in his last 23 games and his first point in his last 13.
Coyle’s goal was his third in three games. The centre had scored only once in his previous 24 games.
Lack got a little help in the second period from Alexander Edler. Zach Parise stuffed the puck between Lack’s pads, but just before it crossed the goal line, Edler swept it away.
“We know it’s do-or-die now and we got to come up with the same kind of effort tomorrow,” Lack said.
Vancouver has won six of its last nine after losing 11 of 12.
Both Phoenix and Dallas were idle on Wednesday. The Canucks now have 78 points, Dallas 79 and Phoenix 82.
Henrik Sedin missed the game with a leg injury and didn’t make the trip.
Minnesota is trying to hang on to its playoff position and not to be surprised Yeo has to answer questions about his goaltending situation.
“I want to be careful on that one. I’m not saying that we can’t be any better between the pipes, but at the same time there’s some quality chances that we’re giving up,” he said. “Obviously, we have to do our part to make sure those guys are in the right frame of mind.”