About 3 minutes into the 2nd, the Canucks managed to tie it up. After a beautiful give and go, Henrik hit Daniel with a short pass, and Daniel banked it off of Bachman and in. With that assist, Henrik tied Markus Naslund for the all time points record. 53 seconds later, Higgins gave Vancouver their first lead of the game. Weise fed Higgins at the point, who skated for a few seconds to get a clear shot before snapping it at the net. Poor Bachman was screened by Robidas, his own defender, and had it bounce off Robidas stick before deflecting 5 and a half minutes later, Henrik broke the record. Off of the rush, Henrik fed a perfect pass through the legs of the defender, right to Burrows who snapped it in. Daniel retrieved the puck for him, and he received a standing ovation that lasting for almost 2 minutes and well into the commercial break.
Somewhere near the middle of the second, the Canucks and Stars took a few brutal runs at each other, and the tensions climbed. In the last 5 minutes of the 2nd, the game exploded. Volpatti and Ryan Garbutt dropped the gloves right off of the faceoff, and Volpatti knocked him down with a punch to the face. On the next draw, 1 second later in hockey time, Lappiere and Fiddler threw down off the face off, and danced for a while before wrestling it out. Again, off the next face off, Weise and Nystrom ripped into each other with a flurry of punches, which Nystrom won. 3 fights in 3 box score seconds. With just over 2 minutes left, Daley fired a shot from 10 feet inside the blueline, Schneider couldn't control the rebound, and Eakin pushed it past him to make it 3-2, end of the 2nd.
The intensity died down only a little in the 3rd, there were no fights early on but everyone asides from the Sedins were throwing hits like they were going out of style. Bieksa made a terrible choice to pinch to get the puck in the offensive zone, and it led to a 3 on 1 that Schneider managed to handle. Schneider made another couple of brilliant saves on the PK a few minutes later, and the third rolled on. Around 8 minutes in, the Stars crashed the crease on the rush, and Roussel pushed the puck through Schneider's pads to tie it at 3. After that, the game slowed down until the 3 minute mark. On a delayed penalty, Jamie Benn shot the puck cross ice to Brenden Dillon who buried it. 4-3 Stars, 3:01 left to play. After a few seconds, it wound down to a face off in the Dallas zone, after an icing call, goalie pulled, 11 seconds left. Henrik won the face off, but Hamhuis' shot was stopped and the puck was tied up in the corner until the buzzer rang. Kesler slashed a Benn after the horn, and a little face washing took place, but nothing serious. Game over, 4-3 Dallas.
Tidbits:
- Aaron Rome returns to Vancouver for the first time since being dropped at free agency
- Canucks drop a 2 goal lead again.
- Daniel Sedin is 4th in all time Canucks points at 728, only 29 from becoming 2nd all time, with no active player within 300 points of him. Needless to say, both twins will stay at the top of that list for a while.
- Kesler: 17:27 ice time, 4 hits, 4 shots, 1 assist but -1 in the +/- department. 75% in the faceoff circle. Not a bad start to a season, but could've been a heck of a lot better
- PK: 4/4. Played solid, improved off of their flaws from last game.
- PP: 0/3 Looked a lot slicker with Kesler back on the first unit, able to hold the puck in a little better but still a few problems gaining the zone.
Expect games like this for the next little while. Thankfully, they shouldn't be as bad because the Sedins seem to have found their groove, but it'll take some time for both Kesler and Booth to get their groove back.
Next game is Sunday against St. Louis at 6.
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