Second period letdown costs Canucks
Posted January 29, 2014 10:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Tom Sestito put Vancouver up 2-0 early in the second period but Chicago rang off four straight goals in a span of 7:41 as the Canucks fell 5-2 to the Blackhawks at Rogers Arena.
The second period surge for the visitors began with a pretty passing play to set up a Marian Hossa powerplay marker. Hossa finished off the play, going upstairs on Roberto Luongo, after being fed cross-crease by Kris Versteeg.
A little over three minutes later, the Blackhawks pulled even. Sheldon Brookbank’s shot from the point was deflected in the slot by Brandon Saad and Luongo was unable to react quick enough to make the stop.
Chicago took its first lead of the night less than a minute after the equalizer. Brent Seabrook put a bouncing puck in front of the net and it hopped over a couple of Canucks sticks before Jonathan Toews knocked it in for his 18th goal of the season.
Patrick Sharp scored the fourth goal for Chicago a little under eight minutes after Hossa got the team on the board. Sharp’s quick wrister beat Luongo, giving him 27 goals.
The Canucks opened the scoring very early. Ryan Kesler had a weak backhander from the point find its way to an open Chris Higgins in front of the net. Higgins made a quick move to the backhand and slid the puck through the pads of Corey Crawford to make it 1-0 just 16 seconds after the opening face-off.
Sestito potted his fifth goal of the season 2:44 into the middle period as he fired a one-timer past Crawford.
Saad added a goal into the empty-net as the Canucks had an extra attacker on.
Vancouver has now been held to two or fewer goals in nine of its past 10 games and 16 of its last 20.
The result helped the defending Stanley Cup champions snap out of a four-game losing skid.
The loss was the final home game for the Canucks before the Olympic break. Vancouver begins a five-game road trip on Friday against the Winnipeg Jets.
