Sedins power Canucks to sweep of struggling Stars

Canucks complete season sweep of stars despite depleted blue line.

Who needs defense when the Vancouver Canucks have the highest scoring offense in the league? Daniel Sedin and Raffi Torres scored two goals each for the Canucks, who beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 Saturday night in Vancouver.

Brenden Morrow cut the Canucks lead to one midway through the third period with his 25 goal of the season, but Vancouver quickly responded with two goals to put the game away.

The Canucks have been forced to start three rookies on defense while six defenders recover from injury. One of those rookies is Yann Sauve, who in just his third NHL game, made a spectacular play that set up the goal that put the game out of reach. Back in their defensive zone, Sauve sprawled out on the ice to poke the puck ahead to Daniel Sedin, who started a 3-on-1 break. A beautiful display of passing between Daniel and Alex Burrows ended with Henrik Sedin skating right up to the goal to knock in the pass from his brother for his 14 goal of the season.

Daniel Sedin opened the scoring with a sniper shot goal into the top right corner of the net over the shoulder of Dallas goalie Andrew Raycroft. His second goal was the game-winning goal and 32 of the season.

The Sedin twins have been a model of consistency that has carried Vancouver to the best record in the league. Daniel Sedin continues to leads the NHL with 77 points, while brother Henrik has 72 points. Last year, Henrik won the NHL MVP award while winning the scoring title. It looks like his brother Daniel could win the MVP this year.

   Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo outperformed his backup from last year, Raycroft now a backup for the Stars. Raycroft had 33 saves to Luongo’s 22, but allowed three more goals to get past him.

Dallas has just one win in the last nine contests and have fallen into a four-way tie fro the last three playoff spots in the Western Conference.

It looks like there is some good news on the injury front for Vancouver. Defenseman Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard both skated during practice prior to the game and appear to be ready to return to the ice next week.

As the season rolls on and the Canucks pile up wins preparing for the playoffs, the most important thing is for them to get healthy on the blue line. In the battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup, offense is good to have, but you can’t win the championship without great defense. At least the rookie defensemen are getting experience now, because they could be called upon for the most important games in club history.

Dallas vs. Vancouver ESPN recap 

Gonzaga wins key WCC game, Washington loses heartbreaker

The Gonzaga Bulldogs crushed the San Francisco Dons 70-53 Saturday night in Spokane. On the western side of the state, fans of the Washington Huskies must have had their hands on their heads after watching the Huskies fall to Pac-10 leading Arizona 87-86 in a thrilling contest.

Gonzaga rising up standings to take back WCC

                    

With the win, the Bulldogs jumped over the Dons in the WCC standings to second place, one game behind St. Mary’s. Gonzaga has won the West Coast Conference the last 11 years, but this year that streak is in serious jeopardy. Gonzaga’s next game will decide who wins the conference and they will have to travel to California and beat St. Mary’s on the road if they want that streak to continue. Gonzaga plays St. Mary’s on Thursday Feb. 24.

Gonzaga was led in scoring by senior Steven Gray with 19 points. With the win over San Francisco, the Bulldogs avenged a 96-91 loss in San Francisco back on Jan. 22. Gonzaga’s next game in January was a loss to St. Mary’s, their third straight conference loss, was certainly a low-point in the season. Now Gonzaga can turn things around and take back the conference. With a 19-9 record and only 1-5 against ranked teams, Gonzaga needs to win the conference to assure them a berth in the NCAA tournament.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/2250/gonzaga-bulldogs

Washington's shot at win rejected in final seconds

            Oh how the drama of a close basketball game can bring you to the edge of your seat and turn to heartbreak in a flash of a blocked shot. With two seconds remaining, Washington’s Darnell Gant’s shot in the paint was rejected emphatically by Arizona forward Derrick Williams to preserve an 87-86 Arizona win over Washington Saturday in Tucson.

            Williams did everything for Arizona to secure the victory. He scored 10 of his game high 26 points in the final six minutes, grabbed 11 rebounds, and his last of two blocks won the game while fans in white exploded in celebration.

            Washington was led by Matthew Bryan-Amaning who had 24 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks and 4 steals. His dunk over Williams tied the game at 80.

            The loss was a huge blow to the Huskies chance to repeat as Pac-10 champions. Washington remains third in the conference, three games behind Arizona with three conference games remaining.

            The Wildcats ran out to a 12 point lead early in the first half before the Huskies made it a game, outscoring Arizona in the second half.

The final five minutes of the game went back and forth with both teams not backing down. Bryan-Amaning blocked a shot that was rebounded and scored by Arizona forward Soloman Hill, which gave Arizona the lead with 24 seconds left. Then both teams traded turnovers before Washington’s last chance with 2 seconds left. Rejected.

            The Huskies have struggled on the road in Pac-10 games, losing all five away from home. Washington’s final three games are all at home, one against UCLA, who is one game ahead of UW in the conference standings. Its time to dig deep for the Huskies as the Pac-10 tournament nears.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/264/washington-huskies 

Western men beat Central, women clinch GNAC

Carver Gym was jumping on back to back nights with both Western basketball teams picking up big wins this week. On Wednesday night, the men’s team beat state-rival Central Washington 66-62 in front of a televised audience on FSN. On Thursday night, the women’s team cruised to 67-57 win over Alaska Anchorage to claim the GNAC title and win their 17^th consecutive game.
http://wwuvikings.cstv.com 

                

Men slam rival Wildcats

With the spotlight on and the Northwest watching, Western came to play in the biggest game of the year against the conference leading Central Washington Wildcats. The Vikings nearly let a double-digit lead slip away but hit some key free throws down the stretch to snap Central’s 11 game winning streak.

Western junior guard John Allen led the Vikings with 18 points and senior forward Michael Duty added 17 points. Both Allen and Duty made all four free throws taken in the last 20 seconds of the game that proved to be the margin of victory.

The scene at the end of the game showed just how big this win was. When the final buzzer sounded, the fans stormed the court and all that could be seen on TV was a sea of blue. Not only did the Vikings beat their division rival with home crowd support, but jumped into sole possession of second place in the GNAC.

But when Saturday rolled around and Northwest Nazarene came into town, Western could not carry the momentum of Central’s win into the weekend. Western’s six game winning streak was snapped with a 75-69 defeat to NNU. The loss brought them to a tie for second with Alaska Anchorage with two games remaining, but the Vikings do hold the tiebreaker over UAA. With two regular season games left, the Vikings next game is a rematch with Seattle Pacific who has lost three straight games to fall one game behind Western in the conference. It was SPU that beat Western on FSN earlier in the season. Western plays SPU Tuesday night at 7pm, the final home game of the season. No doubt the blue crew will come out strong for a big game on Senior Night.

GNAC Standings (as of 2/20/11)

Central Washington      14-2    21-3

Alaska Anchorage        11-5    19-8

Western Washington 11-5    16-8

Seattle Pacific              10-6    16-8

*www.gnacsports.com

Women’s winning streak continues

            With home wins on Thursday and Saturday night, the Vikings have brought their winning streak to 18 games, while clinching first place in the GNAC along the way. With every win, the Vikings look more and more like the UCONN Huskies who earlier in the season set the NCAA record with 90 straight wins. Thursday’s win over Alaska Anchorage, who is second in the conference, assured Western home court advantage throughout the GNAC tournament, starting Feb. 28.

On Saturday, Western beat up Alaska Fairbanks 68-44, to run their home court winning streak to 24. Fairbanks still has just one win on the season and was no match for the Vikings who have lost only one game this year.

Saturday’s game was the final regular home game for four Viking players, all of whom have been instrumental to Western’s success this year. The four seniors are Amanda Dunbar, Gabby Wade, Lauren Hefflin, and Megan Pinske. Dunbar leads the team in scoring with nearly 14 points per game, and earlier in the season set the school record for three-pointers made.

Western is ranked No. 6 in the NCAA D-II Top 25 poll and No. 2 in the West Region poll. The Vikings finish up the season with two road games before the playoffs begin. Here is to a magical run in the NCAA tournament in hopes that this year’s women’s basketball team is the best in school history and can bring home a championship.

GNAC Standings (as of 2/20/11)

Western Washington 16-0   23-1

Alaska Anchorage        13-4   14-2

Seattle Pacific               11-5   17-7

*www.gnacsports.com

Western hockey overpowers UW in final home game

Friday Feb. 4 @ Bellingham Sportsplex

The Western Vikings put on a show for their fans in the final home game of the season against their biggest rival the University of Washington Huskies, winning 8-5 in front of a revved up crowd surrounding the ice rink at the Bellingham Sportsplex Friday night.
With the game tied at 4 going into the final period, the Vikings jumped all over Husky goalie Danny Dougan, scoring 3 quick goals to unravel the junior goaltender. Western forward Danny Becker scored two of his three goals in the third period to complete the hat trick and put the game out of reach.
With each goal scored, the rowdy Western fans banged on the glass behind Dougan and shouted remarks to rattle the goalie's concentration. It appeared the fans got under his skin when after the third goal went past him into the net, Dougan just looked down at the ice and shook his head. A group of about eight Western fans who stood on the bleachers, would run right up to the glass behind the goalie after every goal and yell, "Hey Dougan, your mother and I are disappointed in you!"
It is ironic that Western's hockey coach, John Dougan, is the father of the Husky goalie. On the other side, Western goalie Tyler Zetting picked up the win for the Vikings.
With the win Western avenged their loss to the Huskies back on October 15, a 4-3 loss.
This weekend (Feb 18-20) the Vikings hockey team will take part in a season ending hockey tournament. For more info check out the Western hockey facebook page, or team page: http://www.wwu.edu/hockey/

Canucks overcome struggles against Blackhawks with win

Vancouver gets the best of playoff nemesis Chicago in final regular season match-up

Friday Feb. 4 in Vancouver: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Vancouver Canucks

Take that Blackhawk fans! Sit down Vince Vaughn in your Blackhawks jersey! NHL's best team, the Vancouver Canucks, had a bone to pick with the team that has knocked them out of the second round of the playoffs the last two seasons. The result was a thrilling game with Vancouver having the last laugh with a 4-3 win in the last match-up against Chicago in the regular season.
With Vancouver trailing 3-2 in the third period, the Sedin twins came through in the clutch to win the game. Henrik scored a power play goal midway through the third period and Daniel Sedin tapped the puck over Blackhawk goalie Marty Turco for the game winning goal with just four minutes left in the game.
While Chicago fans might blame the officials for two calls that went against the Blackhawks, they still had a two-man advantage with the lead and could not score. Chicago also failed to score on three straight power plays. In the first period with the game scoreless, Dave Bolland got the puck past Roberto Luongo but the goal was waved off when Blackhawk winger Troy Brouwer skated into the crease, causing interference on Luongo. Then causing insult to injury, Canucks defenseman Christian Ehrhoff scored when it appeared that the play was offside.
The win snapped a five game goal losing streak to Chicago going back to last year's playoffs. Earlier in the season, Luongo surrendered 7 goals in a humiliating loss to Chicago. Despite giving up 45 shots on goal, Luongo was good enough for the win and hopefully regained his confidence against a team that has given him troubles the last two years.
The loss knocked Chicago to ninth place in the Western Conference, just one point out of the playoffs. But they look battle tested with captain Johnathan Toews leading the way. Toews had a goal and assist in the game.
The battle for NHL scoring leader appears to be between the Sedin twins, who are playing their best hockey at the right time. Daniel took over the lead in the NHL with 69 points, while Henrik has 65 points.
With the Northwest Division nearly locked up, the Canucks are revving up to finish the season with the best record and get home ice advantage for the playoffs. I can't wait for the playoffs to start.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=310204022

Both Western basketball teams featured on FSN

The last two Wednesday nights both Western's men's and women's basketball games have been broadcast on Fox Sports Northwest. The result was a split for Western with the men falling to Seattle Pacific University and the women beating SPU. Here is a recap of both pivotal mid-season games.

Men's game vs. SPU Jan. 26 @ Seattle- Going into the game both Western and Seattle Pacific were tied for third place in the GNAC. The pressure of a regional broadcast certainly added to the intensity of the game.
The Vikings controlled the first half leading 36-31 going into the break. Sophomore guard John Allen scored all but one of his field goal attempts and led the Vikings with 17 points. Fortunes changed for Allen and the rest of the Vikings in the second half.
Allen, a transfer from Washington State, could not buy a bucket in the second half, missing all six shot attempts. Western shot just 33% in the second half while momentum switched towards SPU.
The Falcons capitalized on the cold shooting from the Vikings and found their twin towers in the post. Center Andy Poling paced SPU with 20 points and  9 rebounds, while Modou Niang was critical in the latter stages of the game with two blocks and six points via slam dunks.
Down the stretch SPU outscored the Vikings 24-12 in the last 10 minutes and grinded out a 69-61 victory on the road. The win was the 1,000 in SPU history and secured third place while the Vikings dropped their third straight game.
Since the loss on FSN, the Vikings have rebounded with three straight wins, against Simon Frasier, Western Oregon and Saint Martins on Saturday night. After a couple conference games in Alaska, the Vikings return home for the biggest test of the season, a battle with conference leading rival Central Washington on FSN. The stakes for that game will be huge, as Western makes the push for the playoffs.
http://wwuvikings.cstv.com/

Women's game vs. SPU Feb. 2 @ Bellingham- Western continued their winning streak and dominance in the GNAC with a 67-57 victory against SPU, their 13th straight win and 21st consecutive home win. The win improved the Vikings record to 18-1, who are ranked seventh in the country in the ESPN Division-II Top 25 poll. Their only loss came back in December against Chico State during a tournament in California and that game went to overtime.
With just a three point lead at halftime, two quick jumpers from Megan Pinske and a couple assists led the Vikings to a quick 10-3 run that put the game out of reach early in the second half. Pinske finished with 12 points and six assists. Western's leading scorer Amanda Dunbar scored 13 (her season average) and both Lauren Hefflin and Corinn Waltrip scored 15 points each to lead the Vikings.
With seven games remaining before conference tournament, the Vikings have all put locked up first place as they aim for their best season in program history.
http://wwuvikings.cstv.com/