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.
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