Sunday, February 17, 2008

Canucks 4 Oilers 2

Guess this photo really says it all about the scrap-filled affair last night at GM Place. 193 Minutes in penalties, including 14 fighting majors, some bone crunching hits by both teams (including one by Zach Stortini that knocked Taylor Pyatt out of the game), and some genuine playoff-style animosity made for one of the most entertaining games we have seen out of the Canucks all season. The Sedins and Markus Naslund once again proved to be the undoing of the Oilers as they combined for 6 points, and Henrik picked up another in the last minute on Alex Burrows empty net goal. Burrows was given a shot by Jarret Stoll as he celebrated that goal, no doubt bringing back memories of Chris Pronger's cowardly attack on Ryan Kesler a couple months back, and Burrows responded with a one handed slash to Stoll's ankle, which got him a major for slashing, as well as the 5 for fighting that ensued in the line brawl. After that was cleared up, another brawl broke out, featuring a very spirited tilt between Mike Weaver and the much bigger Curtis Glencross. Weaver has been earning my respect lately with his solid play, but this fight has made me a fan. He took everything Glencross could muster and got in a number of shots, proving to be more than the newest Oiler could handle. The Canucks also got another goal from Sami Salo, who has really found his scoring touch after battling with injuries all season, missing 19 games. Roberto Luongo did what he hasn't done a whole lot lately, shut the door when the Canucks had the lead, despite many Oiler chances. The big story of the night was the response by the Canucks to the physical play of the Oilers. The gave as good as they got all night. "They tried to come in our rink and tried to intimidate us and push us around," said Ryan Kesler. "But when they try to push around Danny and Hank (Sedin), its our job to respond and show them and tell them that's not going to happen and I thought we did a good job of that tonight." A huge win, that was important not just because it moved them into 8th place in the Conference, but because of the effect this will have heading into Tuesday's rematch with the Minnesota Wild.

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