By Andrew Phillip Chernoff | CanucksBanter
November 25, 2023
The Vancouver Canucks (14-7-0-1), 3rd in the Pacific Division, visited the San Jose Sharks (4-15-0-2), 8th in the Pacific Division, at SAP Center, San Jose, California, on Saturday night, and San Jose held on at the end for an exciting 4-3 win.
The Vancouver Canucks entered the game in 2nd place in the Pacific Division, Western Conference and tied for 3rd in the NHL.
The Canucks also went into the “Shark tank” having the highest goal differential (+33) in the NHL (85 Goals For, 52 Goals Against).
Quinn Hughes arrived in San Jose with 24 points (5-19=24) in his last 13 games, totaling 32 points overall (8-24=32), and in 2nd place in NHL scoring. Not to forget, on a 10-game point streak (4-12=16).
Vancouver goals came from: Brock Boeser (2), Filip Hronek
Helpers from: J.T. Miller (3) Hronek, Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes
Vancouver had multi-point games from: Miller (3), Boeser (2), Hronek (2)
Canucks starting goalie Casey DeSmith stopped 18 shots and picked up his 2nd loss of the season. He has a 3.06 GAA and a .907 SV%.
He is 4-2-1 with 0 shutouts in 6 game starts and 4-2-0-0 in road games.
GAME REVIEW
Controversy would not take long in the game. Similar to Friday night, the validity of a goal would be questioned.
Canucks Sam Lafferty made it 1-0 Vancouver, but the goal was challenged for interference, and the review resulted in the score disallowed.
The disallowed goal seemed to motivate the Sharks as they started getting chances in the Canucks end.
Vancouver was having problems getting sustained offensive play in the Sharks end, trouble setting up and working the puck around for scoring chances, as the first period approached the halfway point.
The Sharks would strike first as Ty Emberson scored his first NHL goal, assists Thomas Hertal (11) and Mike Hoffman (2) at 9:58, and San Jose was ahead 1-0.
The night before Canucks scored first and Seattle next had a disallowed goal. This time, the shoe was on the other foot, so-to-speak for Vancouver.
Canucks received a power play late in the opening period at 14:35 when former Canuck Kyle Burroughs went off for holding against Nils Aman, and Vancouver would take advantage, evening up the score at 1-1.
Filip Hronek (2) assists J.T. Miller (18) and Quinn Hughes (25) at 15:37.
With the assist, Hughes increased his points streak to 11 games in the month of November for a Canucks defenseman, a team record.
The second period was not a shot filled period, 7 minutes in with total shots in favor of the Sharks at 12-10 in the game (2-1 in the period).
Canucks would be looking to take the lead in the game on the power play as Nils Aman would be tripped in the Sharks end by Marc-Edouard Vlasic under 9 minutes left in the period, but would not garner any shots on net.
Quickly after the Vancouver power play, the Sharks would take a 2-1 lead on the 5th goal of the season by Fabian Zetterlund at 14:04 assist Hertal (12).
Canucks in the tail end of the 2nd period would get a power play when Hertal went of for the Sharks at 18:58 for high sticking QuinnHughes.
The Canucks scored 42 seconds in with Brock Boeser (14) finally scoring at 19:29 assists to Filip Hronek (20) and J.T. Miller (19).
Vancouver and Sharks knotted at 2-2 after 40 minutes of play.
By no means were the Canucks stemming along in the game, and their game was anything but smooth and sound from end to end, but if they could put a 20 minute all-in effort by every player in the 3rd, they just might pull this game out of the clutches of the Sharks.
As people were making their way to the seats for the final period, San Jose scored 22 seconds into the final period to take a 3-2 lead.
Mikael Granlund (1) assists Calen Addison (8) and Mario Ferraro (3) at 0:22.
San Jose also would get a power play opportunity to add to their delight at the 1:00 mark.
Mike Hoffman (6) would score 48 seconds into their man advantage at 1:48, with assists to Granland (5) and Addison (9), and the Sharks were up two goals at 4-2.
At 5:20, a scuffle would break out and lead to multiple penalties for both teams and a power play for Vancouver.
The Canucks were unsuccessful for the second straight man advantage and were 2 for 4 as they were unable to get quality shots on net to pull within a goal of the Sharks.
Vancouver spent the rest of the period trying to claw their way back to leading in the game and continually found the Sharks inhospitable hosts that were intent on protecting their two goal lead.
Canucks pulled starting goalie DeSmith out for the 6th attacker with 3:45 left in the game.
Brock Boeser (15) would score with the extra man at 16:49, assists to Miller (20) and Elias Pettersson (21).
Vancouver continued with the extra man to get the equalizer and force the game to overtime.
San Jose would not relinquish the lead, and Vancouver would fall short by a goal at 4-3.
Brock Boeser Speaks:
Canucks Game Notes
- Face-offs
- VAN: 34/63: 54%; SJS: 29/63: 46%
- Power Play
- VAN: 2-4 SJS: 1-1
- Penalty Kill
- VAN: 0-1 SJS: 2-4
- Shots
- VAN: 34 SJS: 22
- Hits
- VAN: 19 SJS: 13
- Blocked Shots
- VAN: 15 SJS: 23
Canucks Highlights
Game Reports
- Game Summary
- Event Summary
- Faceoff Comparison
- Faceoff Summary
- Time On Ice: SJS
- Time On Ice: VAN
- Roster Report
- Shot Report
Hockey Analytics Reports
Source: nhl.com