Vancouver Canucks Edge New York Rangers 2-1

After spending over 500 games behind the bench in Vancouver, Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault knows what Henrik and Daniel Sedin can do on the ice. And, in case he had forgotten, the twins each notched two points as the Canucks topped the Rangers 2-1 in Vancouver.

Despite an empty scoreline after two periods, the Rangers were the better team. Ryan Miller stood tall in the Vancouver net; even when he was beaten by a Dan Girardi deflection, the puck struck the crossbar.

“There’s no doubt in the first two periods I felt we carried the play,”  Vigneault said. “We had some good opportunities and good looks, but weren’t able to capitalize on them and then you are going into a third period that turned out to be a little bit strange.”

In that strange third period, the Canucks struck first on a five-on-three power play. After Jarret Stoll took a delay of game penalty, Alex Edler opened the scoring from the point; both Sedin brothers assisted on the play.

The Rangers equalized on a Dan Boyle penalty shot, which was awarded after a Canucks defender covered the puck in the crease. The veteran defenseman made no mistake, scoring his first goal of the year.

Soon after, though, Daniel Sedin tipped the game winning home. He was assisted by a slap pass from Edler, who in turn got the puck from Henrik.

“Those are the kind of plays [Edler] can make,” Daniel said. “I was fortunate to tip it in. It was a pretty tough angle.”

The night was was not all joyful for Vancouver, though, as defenseman Daniel Hamhuis took a puck to the mouth. He would leave the ice with a trail of blood in his wake.

“He took the shot in the mouth, just on the upper part of his mouth and lost some teeth,” Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins said. “I would assume it probably broke his jaw. It’s scary. It’s a hard thing to take. He’ll suffer with that for a little while.”

Photo: Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin takes a shot against goaltender Ryan Miller (winger Daniel Sedin in the background) during warm-up prior to a game against the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Arena on February 3, 2015. Photo by Bure’s Triple Deke via Wikimedia Commons

Article by Joe Kozlowski