Vancouver Canucks: Wrong Granlund Brother Scores Hat Trick

The Vancouver Canucks scored three goals on Dubnyk, but it was not enough, as the Minnesota Wild scored six, including a hat trick from Mikael Granlund.

Entering this game, Vancouver Canucks forward Markus Granlund was tied with his older brother, with 12 goals on the season.

Mikael Granlund was just waiting until his Minnesota Wild visited his brother’s team. He scored a hat trick to pull ahead in the family scoring race. The Wild’s Granlund also added an assist to finish with four points.

Those four points were enough to pull ahead of the Canucks as well. But the Wild, who are among the league leaders in goals-for, added another two for good measure.

Final Score:

Recap:

As they have often done this season under new head coach Bruce Boudreau, Minnesota opened the scoring. Christian Folin found his defense partner Mike Reilly, who beat Ryan Miller stick side:

Reilly’s first goal of the season comes on the heels of an uncharacteristic mistake from Chris Tanev. Playing the right side, he moved over to his left to check Nino Niederreiter, who was already covered by Nikita Tryamkin:

Not so good, Tanev.

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For a while, it looked as if the Canucks could skate with the Wild. Minnesota leads the Western Conference, but halfway through the first period the shots were tied at seven each.

After the Wild scored, they managed to tie the game in short order. Jannik Hansen, who had missed six weeks with a knee injury, helped set it up. He picked up the puck along the boards, drove the middle and attempted a shot.

With four Wild players swarming him, the puck didn’t get through to the net. But it did find it’s way to his linemate Brandon Sutter, who fired it past Devan Dubnyk:

That is Hansen’s tenth point of the season.

The “Granny” Show

After that goal, though, Mikael Granlund began to put his stamp on this game. First, he stood alone in front while several Canucks chased Matt Dumba behind the front. The puck squirted in front, and an uncovered Granlund had a tap-in:

Then, early in the second period, he beat Ryan Miller cleanly on the glove side:

Miller, who had been superb between Christmas and the All-Star break, has allowed 10 goals in his last two starts. And that one I’m sure he’d like back.

Speaking of the All-Star Break — how about that Bo Horvat?

The Canucks’ leader in goals might have thought about passing that puck to Alexandre Burrows. But only for a second. Shooting proved to be a good choice.

However, just like the last period, the Wild responded quickly to a Canucks goal. First Zach Parise tipped what looked like a harmless shot:

https://twitter.com/mnwild/status/828100802610860034

Then Granlund went on a highlight-reel rush, fired a no-look pass to Mikko Koivu, and watched as Koivu put it home:

The Canucks got one back before the period expired. On the power play, Baertschi’s one-timer was blocked, but Sutter batted it from midair for his second goal of the game.

Also earning an assist was Daniel Sedin, who is now just 30 points shy of 1000 in his career.

That is as close as the Canucks would get. All that remained was for Granlund to complete his first career hat trick in the third period:

Granlund is on a massive 13-game point streak. He now has 48 points on the year, which puts him in 12th for league scoring. His brother Markus has more than a little catching up to do.

And so does his team. The Canucks’ third straight loss means they are falling behind in the playoff race. They sit with a .500 record, 52 points in 52 games, which puts them five points back of the last wild card spot.

Next: Sutter Scores Twice vs. Wild

Luckily, all the teams around them are losing. Unluckily, the two wild card teams are on winning streaks. The Vancouver Canucks will try to make up ground on a six-game road trip, which begins Tuesday against the Nashville Predators.