By Kevin Kinghorn
Canucks 6 - Blackhawks 2 - FINAL
It might not be as catchy, but for the Canucks at least, it's true that the best offense is actually good defense. And judging by the way they played Tuesday night at General Motors Place, it's a really, really good defense.
Canuck blue liners scored three goals and set up a fourth as Vancouver grounded a hard-working Blackhawks team 6-2.
Mattias Ohlund led the Vancouver attack with his second and third goals of the season in a four-goal, second period outburst that was stoked by five Chicago penalties.
The Canuck power play, that had stuttered to start the year, scored three times on ten chances and has now scored six goals in two games.
"It's obviously a key this year the way they're calling the penalties," said Ohlund, who was a plus-two in just over 20 minutes. "There's no reason why we shouldn't be successful on the power play."
A gritty Chicago side battled back to make it 4-2 early in the third on a power play of their own when Martin Lapointe picked a rebound out of Bryan Allen's skates and snapped it behind a scrambling Dan Cloutier. But that was as close as the Hawks would get.
Brendan Morrison quickly restored the three-goal cushion with his first of the year, corralling a heater from Ed Jovanovski at the side of the net, before lifting a backhand over Nikolai Khabibulin at 8:15.
Sami Salo, Daniel Sedin and Markus Naslund, with his team-leading sixth goal of the season, scored the others for the Canucks.
The Big Line had a breakout night against a young Chicago defense that included Richmond standout Brent Seabrook. The trio counted two goals and eight points.
Todd Bertuzzi doubled his season output with three assists by skating like a delivery truck and challenging the Chicago defense.
"It was great," said Naslund, who had a two-point night. "I think we're starting to find each other. We're maybe passing a little too much and not finishing the plays, but at least we're starting to move around and get the passes through to create stuff."
"I think they gave us a lot of opportunities to get chances with a lot of odd man rushes. I didn't think they played as hard as I expected. But it's good, especially to get that one for Brendan. I know what it feels like when you’re pushing."
The Canucks didn't get off to as quick a start as they might have liked, but they more than made up for it in the second period.
The Canucks went two-for-five with the man advantage in the middle frame alone.
"We started to play with some more emotion and make some assertive plays which we didn't do in the first part of the game," said Ohlund.
After being out shot 9-7, but out-chanced by a much wider margin in the first, Daniel Sedin put the Canuck engine in gear at 2:01 of the middle frame snapping his second goal of the year through a screen.
Ohlund leaned into an Anson Carter feed from the high slot to make it 2-0 at 4:23 on a two-man advantage.
Salo made it 3-0 when his point shot tipped off the shaft of a Chicago stick and up over Khabibulin.
Pavel Vorobiev got the Hawks on the board with a dart over Cloutier's shoulder on a four-on-three Chicago power play at 9:30 of the second before Ohlund delivered the knockout punch.
"Bertuzzi was just going down the wall and banked it back," explained Morrison, who skated onto the puck and stopped on the half boards. "They were kind of overloading that left side and Ohlund gave me a yell. He did a nice job of jumping up into the play and was wide open."
Ohlund skated onto Morrison's pass in the slot, and the big Swede blasted it top corner for a comfortable 4-1 lead.
"Ohlund's getting better and he's continuing to improve," said Crawford of his bruising rear guard who missed all of pre-season with a sore back. "I don't believe he's at 100 per cent in terms of his conditioning, but he's much better tonight than in his previous game and he's continuing to ramp up his game."
He wasn't alone. Once again, the Canuck defense was solid limiting Chicago chances, despite giving up long stretches of possession in their own end.
Former Blackhawk Steve McCarthy had his best night in a Canuck uniform finishing plus-two, with an assist in a season-high 16:04 of ice time. He led the Canucks in hits with four.
Even when the feisty Blackhawk forwards did slip through the gaps in the Vancouver defense, Cloutier was there.
"Cloutier kept us in the game in the first," said Ohlund bluntly.
The Canuck keeper, who finished with 24 saves on 26 shots and was only beaten while shorthanded, was the lone reason Vancouver didn't fall in an early hole.
With the Blackhawks buzzing just minutes in, Kyle Calder slipped unmarked to the top of the Vancouver crease where Tyler Arnason saucered a fat scoring chance onto his tape. Cloutier not only put a pad down on Calder's redirect, he stopped Arnason seconds later when rebound bounced to the side of the goal. Those back-to-back stops highlighted a 9 save effort in the first by Cloutier, who kept the game from going sideways early on.
The Canucks, who now sport a shiny 5-1-1 record that has them in second spot in the Western Conference, have scored 16 goals in their past three games after scoring a total of ten goals in their first four.
"When you're labeled as an offensive team, and you know you have the guy to put up goals, and you don't do it, it's a little frustrating," said Morrison. "But you have to stay with it. We were still winning some close games early on, but there's no question it's nice. The more goals you score, the more fun it is for everyone."
And it definitely was that Tuesday night.
NOTESMESSY
Matthew Barnaby took a might cut at a puck bouncing in the slot late in the second on a Canuck power play. He missed the puck, but caught Ed Jovanovski flush in the mouth on the follow through.
Jovo hit the ice immediately, and left behind a big red stain when he finally did recover enough to get to the bench. It didn't stop him from chirping at Barnaby on his way off.
Jovanovski was back on the bench to start the third sporting some crafty needle work on his lip.
OFFENSEOnce again, the defense figured heavily in the Canucks attack. A mobile, aggressive blue line scored three goals in the second period and racked up seven points on the night.
The forwards did a great job of grinding the Chicago defense down and getting traffic in front. Of course ten power plays doesn't hurt.
The Canucks are now 10-for-55 with the man advantage and move into the upper half of the league in terms of power play percentage at 18.1 percent.
DEFENSE
Tenacious Chicago forwards dug hard in the Vancouver end and generated their fair share of scoring opportunities, but didn't manage an even strength goal. That was mostly due to good positioning and strong physical play in front of Cloutier.
Ohlund, McCarthy, and Nolan Baumgartner, all finished plus-two. Salo led all Canuck with 24:25 of ice time.
HIT OF THE NIGHTOhlund caught Vorobiev wheeling around his own net and out of the Chicago zone after a ring-around. The six-foot, 200-pound sniper from Karaganda must have felt like he'd been in a car accident. Ohlund not only picked the kid up off his feet with 220-pounds of shoulder, but did the same to the at least 500 spectators in crowd.
Lee Goren earns close runner-up honours for crumpling Jim Vandermeer in front of the Chicago bench with a stiff shoulder in the third.
SAVE OF THE GAMEWith the Blackhawks down a pair early in the third, Tyler Arnason skated onto a puck shorthanded and blew untouched over the Canucks line. Cloutier drifted out to the top of his crease and took a hard slap shot off the shoulder.It wasn't Cloutier's most dynamic save, but the Canucks scored 30 seconds later for a 5-2 lead. A shorthanded goal there puts two points in jeopardy.
SCRATCHES
F - Wade Brookbank, Tyler Bouck (groin), Jason King (concussion).
Next up: the Coyotes look for some scraps in the Garage.
