Canucks 4-1 Victory Sets Up an Undefeated Battle at Young Stars

Game-2 for the Canucks in the weekend Young Stars Classic against the Winnipeg Jets lacked the same excitement and vigour we saw in the 3-0 win against the Calgary Flames on Friday night, but it still resulted in a 4-1 victory. The more methodical feel was a natural byproduct of playing with a bit more discipline and structure.

That would be discipline in the ‘attentiveness to systems’ category, not so much in terms of player behaviour. Most of the early scoring chances in this one came during what seemed to be alternating power plays for the two teams. Arshdeep Bains, one of the Canucks stars from Friday night, was one of the guilty parties, taking an ill-advised cross checking penalty early in the 1st period, one that his teammates were able to kill.

They weren’t so lucky the second time around, with Tyler Boland of the Jets tucking home a rebound off Canucks goalie Ty Young at 16:31 of the period on the man advantage. That tied the score after 23-year-old American and Abbotsford Canucks forward Marc Gatcomb put the BC’ers on the board at 8:26.

The Canucks high potent offence took over in the 2nd period with some of the same key names from Friday night.

Tristen Nielsen swatted home a backdoor pass along the left post to put his team up 2-1 at the 4:27 mark of the 2nd period, and then assisted on Danila Klimovich’s goal three minutes later.

Nielsen has been impressive thus far over the weekend, having also scored a hard-to-the-net goal on Friday night against the Flames. VHN has made reference to Nielsen’s efforts with the big Canucks during informal practices in Burnaby the last couple of weeks. The former Vancouver Giants scorer seems to have secured his confidence.

Fittingly for this match, Gatcomb picked up his second goal of the afternoon on the power play midway through the third period. The final stanza even featured the Canucks first fight of the tournament, as Vancouver D-man Alex Kannok-Leipert dropped them with Jets forward Brandon Cutler. Canucks D-man Dylan MacPherson later punched out Jets forward Danny Zhilkin.

The Jets failed on two late power play opportunities, including a 5-on-3 stint.

The Canucks victory was the lone match of the day. With the win, we’re delightfully setting up for a tournament deciding match on Monday afternoon between the 2-and-0 Edmonton Oilers and 2-and-0 Vancouver Canucks. The Oilers beat the Jets 3-2 on Friday and polished off the Flames 4-1 on Saturday night.