Raycroft Draws Wild Card

With Roberto Luongo still nursing some pain from a cracked rib, Andrew Raycroft continues to shine for the injury plagued Canucks, Thursday night being no exception in Minnesota.

With their top scorer from last season (Daniel Sedin) still out another week and a half to two weeks (broken left foot), Vancouver is finding offense from unheralded sources.

While shorthanded in the first period, Darcy Hordichuk forced a turnover at the top of the faceoff circle and blistered a slapper over Nicklas Backstrom’s left shoulder. It was his 1st in 50 games. “I haven’t had a lot of shots this year, but it’s not how many you have, it’s how many you make count,” said ‘Hordy’, “It was nice to have one go in.”  Matt Pettinger, recently signed off the street, scored from an obtuse angle, near the left corner boards about 2 feet over the red line.

Matt Pettinger scores his first of the season, in his second stint as a Canuck - Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid

Once the Canucks had built a 2-0 lead, Andrew Raycroft did everything he could to preserve the lead.  The save of the night occured as Owen Nolan of the Wild took a cross ice pass during the man advantage in the slot.  He quickly fired a hard, low snapshot one-timer, only to be denied by Raycroft’s right pad, as he slid perfectly doing the semi splits.   He also displayed great dexterity with a stick save off Petr Sykora in the second period, Sykora just as surprised as the 18,105 Wild fans at the Xcel Energy Center in St.Paul.

Wild sniper Marty Havlat finds nothing but Raycroft's glove in the 1st period

Canucks fans held their breath in the third period, as one of the goal scorers (powerplay), Mason Raymond, was the victim of an errant upswing of the stick by Wild defenseman Nick Schultz.  From his reaction on the bench, it would appear Alain Vigneault is less than thrilled about recent officiating.  He shook his head watching the replay on the jumbotron.  He had words for Referees Dan O’Halloran and Kevin Pollock, but just as his words fell on deaf ears in their Tuesday tilt with the Rangers, so it was tonight.  It wouldn’t be surprising to find out soon GM Mike Gillis has had a chat with the League in this regard.

Canucks have lost 82 man games in their first 16 games - Fortunately this incident won't add to that tally - AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid

Minnesota came into the game winners of two in a row.  Vancouver earned it’s third road victory of the year, and has won seven of their last nine.  Raycroft finished the game with 28 saves and a .933 save percentage.   Next up: Dallas Stars during back to back games.