Canucks come from behind to beat the Blues in St. Louis

Things are starting to look a lot brighter in Vancouver, as the Canucks seem to have turned the corner and are back to their winning ways of earlier in the year.

There’s even more to be optimistic about, as Vancouver is not leaning on their captain Roberto Luongo as much as they have in the past.  The offense has really stepped up lately with the new line of Mats Sundin, Ryan Kesler and Pavol Demitra leading the way.

In last night’s 6-4 come from behind win against the St. Louis Blues, that trio combined for seven points. The secondary scoring was also key to last night’s victory, Alex Burrows tied the game and Jannik Hansen notched the winner with under 5 to go in the final frame to push the Canucks to their 3rd straight win.

The last time that Vancouver was able to win 3 in a row was back in November.
The Canucks were struggling early in the game, but Mats Sundin’s two goals help them stay close. Over the last 3 games, Sundin and his linemates have combined for 22 points.

Right now, Vancouver is finding a way to grit it out and come back through adversity. It would have been easy to pack it in being down two goals, but they battled hard and I think it is a very positive sign for the club. It also helps that they are starting to get the bounces going their way again. In the 2nd period, with the score 3-2 and the Canucks pressing, Blues forward Brad Winchester cut in and back handed it past Luongo, but it clanged off the post. That goal would have definitely swung the momentum. Even the Burrows tying tally was a bit of a lucky break with his knuckler finding a way past Blues goalie Chris Mason.

With the win Vancouver is now 25-20-8 and has sole possession of 7th in the west...again...for now...

The win was great but there is still a lot of room for improvement. For instance, the penalty-kill is still struggling, as it gave up another two goals last night. Also, Luongo still has not found his game.

He didn’t look good on either of the Blues’ first-period goals, which were both scored from the left circle by Steve Wagner and Brad Boyes.  Luongo also provided a juicy rebound for Keith Tkachuk’s power-play goal early in the second period.

“Finding a way to win when Roberto is (only) okay is another positive sign,” Vigneault said. “We know that he is going to be the great goaltender that he is and he is going to permit us to win our share of games.”