標籤: overturn

The Vancouver Canucks lost 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers Arena on Thursday night, and the game got away from them long before the final horn.

Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli each finished with a goal and two assists, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves as Tampa Bay took control for most of the night.

The Lightning looked to be sharper after a rough outing and quickly hit the nail on the head. Tampa Bay began a four-game road trip by winning its second consecutive game, and its top line of Brandon Hagel, Cirelli and Kucherov combined to finish plus-11 for eight points.

When a team is on the rise, that kind of lead is very difficult to handle. It was too much for the Canucks, who were trying to win consecutive home games for the first time this season.

You can tell when a game is going away from a team, and it has become increasingly slippery for the Canucks. The team only trailed 1-0 after the first period, but there wasn’t much room to breathe and once Tampa Bay hit the gas in the second, it became a very long night.

At 17:37 of the first, Jake Guentzel opened the scoring with a deflection into the slot of a Charles-Edouard d’Astous point shot. Then the flood came. Darren Reddish made it 2–0 just 49 seconds into the second minute, Yanni Gourde added the second goal at 4:16, and Kucherov made it 4–0 at 5:31 when his shot bounced off Filip Hronek near the crease.

a push that couldn’t last

Liam Ohgren gave the Canucks a little life with a quick goal from the middle of the circle at 12:06 of the second. Linus Karlsson added another by batting a rebound out of the air at 7:04 of the third minute after a strong chance by Marco Rossi.

For a moment, despite trailing 4-2, it seemed like maybe the Canucks had finally reassembled the building. Faith that could barely last for a moment.

Just 32 seconds later, Cirelli restored the three-goal lead at 7:36 when a pass from Brandon Hagel bounced off his skate at the top of the crease. Hagel then scored at 10:35 to close the score at 6-2.

Those last two goals destroyed whatever suspense was left and leveled it.

Difficult lesson, familiar feeling

Marco Rossi did his part with two assists, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 24 shots, but it was one of those nights when the gaps were visible.

NHL.com reports that after going 4-18-4 in their last 26 games, the Canucks are now 3-3-1 in their last seven games, which tells you this team has settled down a bit recently, but there’s still a long way to go.

Even the most die-hard Canucks fan will admit that Tampa Bay was cleaner, faster and more direct.