The Vancouver Canucks were down 3-1 but came back to win 4-3 over the St. Louis Blues in Game 5. Here are 3 takeaways from the back and forth battle.
What a game! For the first time since 2011, the Vancouver Canucks are one victory away from winning an official playoff series. After a disappointing performance in Game 4, the Canucks were poised for a better effort.
They started off well. They were winning the races as well as the battles, flying with speed into the offensive zone and getting quality chances all over the ice. In the second the Blues turned up the intensity but in the third, they battled with the Blues well and managed to hang on for the win. The energy and effort were there tonight after being absent in Game 4.
Adam Gaudette was back in the lineup replacing Zack MacEwen.
The Canucks also lost Alex Edler in the second when he was cut by Jordan Kyrou’s skate in the face close to the ear. At the time of this writing, there has been no word of the injury. This is another blow to the Canucks defense having already lost Tyler Myers. Let’s hope he is OK because that was a scary injury.
Here are three takeaways from tonight’s Game 5 triumph over the defending champs.
1. Tyler Motte gets on the score sheet, twice!
In the playoffs, the unlikeliest of players can score big goals. Tyler Motte scored two goals tonight including this beauty of a shorthanded opportunity thanks to Alex Pietrangelo breaking his stick.
What a move by Tyler Motte pic.twitter.com/wLvC02xCQH
— Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) August 20, 2020
He also scored the game-winning goal off the rush beating Jake Allen cleanly.
He used his speed and energy to score goals and create scoring chances for the Canucks. He also was good defensively as he helped the Canucks win battles and force turnovers. Motte sent Twitter into a frenzy as people were praising him for his efforts.
My last article was about Motte and how he was an underrated part of this Canucks team (like Ant-Man is to The Avengers and The Globalist is to Muse’s Drones). The Athletic’s Wyatt Arndt gave me a shout out for the article on Twitter. That was pretty cool even though I wasn’t the one who made the original comparison.
Hey @JoshuaRey91 remember when you called Motte Ant-Man? You might have been right.
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) August 20, 2020
Motte might not be the biggest name on the Canucks but tonight he made a big impact.