This is the worst perfect we’ve ever seen. Nice problem for the Vancouver Canucks to have.
Despite their limited attack, stretches of uninspired play and a pair of third-period deficits in their two-game, two-night opening weekend of the National Hockey League season, the Canucks are somehow 2-0 after rallying from three goals down to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 Sunday on Brandon Sutter’s overtime winner.
It was also Sutter who scored in a shootout the previous night when the Canucks, mostly dismal in the first 50 minutes, rallied to beat the Calgary Flames 2-1.
So the Canucks are still perfect. Let me repeat … the Canucks are still perfect. Only 80 games to go.
Vancouver won only three games all last season out of the 34 they trailed into the third period, and this weekend they did it twice.
Defenceman Ben Hutton sent the game to overtime with a tying goal at 14:10 of the third period. Saturday, Daniel Sedin’s tying goal came with 3:51 remaining in regulation time.
Hutton overpowered former Canuck goalie Eddie Lack with a screened wrist shot from the high slot after a nice pass from Derek Dorsett. Sutter won it with a stick-side wrist shot from 30 feet on a 2-on-1.
After slogging without inspiration or any offensive spark through most of Saturday’s game, yet still finding a way to win, the Canucks pushed from the opening faceoff against the Hurricanes and dominated the first 15 minutes. Naturally, they trailed 2-0 at the intermission.
Victor Rask won a battle against Alex Edler, then spun just far enough away from the Canuck defencemen to take Lee Stempniak’s return pass and shoot post-and-in against goalie Jacob Markstrom at 17:36 of the first period.
The goal was followed by a holding penalty to Canuck captain Henrik Sedin — it was either a phantom call or one missed on replays — and Teuvo Teravainen doubled the Hurricanes’ lead at 19:10 with a high shot from the deep slot that Markstrom was slow to react to after Justin Faulk’s point shot had been blocked.
An interesting footnote to the opening goal was that it came after the Canucks failed to exit their end on a defensive-zone draw by Bo Horvat, who was sent out between checking wingers Alex Burrows and Derek Dorsett after a television timeout.
That line, the centre of a firestorm of debate Friday and Saturday after Canuck coach Willie Desjardins dropped Horvat to the checking unit, was terrific defensively against the Flames. Desjardins was fairly emphatic Sunday morning that the unit would remain together against the Hurricanes, but changed combinations for the game and elevated Horvat to a more offensive role alongside his linemate last season, shifty Sven Baertschi.
It was a move nearly everyone outside the hockey club was calling for, yet still seemed surprising when Desjardins yielded on Sunday. What changed between the morning skate and the evening faceoff?
Markstrom, who started despite Ryan Miller’s perfect performance on Saturday when new Canuck Loui Eriksson passed into his own vacant net on a delayed Calgary penalty, gave up a big rebound on a small shot when Faulk made it 3-0 for Carolina at 5:28 of the second period.
But Horvat, two seconds after a Canuck power play ended, finessed the puck around Faulk and beat ex-teammate Eddie Lack with a close-range backhand to give the Canucks a lifeline at 12:03 of the middle frame.
And two shifts into the third period, another Faulk mistake, a turnover in the Carolina end, gave the Canucks an outnumbered chance down low and Jannik Hansen set up Markus Granlund for a tap-in that cut the deficit to 3-2 with nearly 19 minutes remaining.
imacintyre@postmedia.com