{"id":265463,"date":"2025-11-06T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265463\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T12:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:00:13","slug":"canucks-third-period-collapse-vs-blackhawks-halts-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265463\/","title":{"rendered":"Canucks’ third-period collapse vs. Blackhawks halts momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2013 It wasn\u2019t the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>\u2019 worst performance this season, just their most disappointing result.<\/p>\n

Having survived (we think) an injury crisis by scavenging points and maximizing opportunities, they minimized output from Wednesday\u2019s home game against the Chicago Blackhawks by getting nothing from a contest they dominated for 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

Scoreless through two periods despite outshooting the Blackhawks 35-19, the Canucks surrendered four goals in 8 \u00bd minutes early in the third period and lost 5-2 at Rogers Arena. It was 4-0 for Chicago before Aatu Raty<\/a> and Evander Kane<\/a> scored in garbage time for Vancouver.<\/p>\n

The Canucks have been navigating physical hardship the last three weeks, missing as many as nine players during an unyielding schedule that included seven games in 11 days and seven road games out of 10.<\/p>\n

But Wednesday\u2019s third-period disintegration presents a mental challenge.<\/p>\n

After treading water in the standings during their crisis, demonstrating resilience and resourcefulness to go 7-7-0, the Canucks could have used the Blackhawks\u2019 visit as a launching pad.<\/p>\n

Vancouver just returned from a gritty 2-1-0 road trip that saw them get captain and best player Quinn Hughes back from injury. Then leading scorer Conor Garland returned on Wednesday, with injured forwards Teddy Blueger and Jonathan Lekkerimaki lining up behind him.<\/p>\n

The Canucks were opening a four-game homestand, their longest since the compressed National Hockey League season began.<\/p>\n

With all these tailwinds, the Canucks came close to over-running the Blackhawks in the second period, but couldn\u2019t beat Chicago goalie Spencer Knights. They were playing great \u2013 until they weren’t<\/p>\n

Now here they are, back under .500 by a game, still unable to win consecutive games since Oct. 19, and needing to rebuild the positivity they scattered Wednesday before the Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche visit on consecutive nights this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it just stinks,\u201d winger Jake DeBrusk said. \u201cIt sucks how you play a pretty decent game, but all of our shots were from the outside. And it\u2019s pretty much been (that way) the whole year. Give their goalie credit, and they box out well. But we kept them in the game. This is what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Canucks had a 12-2 advantage in high-danger chances in the middle period, the Blackhawks got a hat trick from Tyler Bertuzzi<\/a> in the third.<\/p>\n

He made it 1-0 with his feet at 3:06, guiding in Matt Grzelcyk\u2019s pass to the back post with his skates a few seconds after Canuck defenceman Tyler Myers passed into teammate Max Sasson\u2019s skate for a turnover. And when the Blackhawks got a soft call against Myers for interference \u2013 because power plays were 2-0 Vancouver at that point \u2013 Bertuzzi scored from an identical spot at 6:46, this time using his stick to convert Connor Bedard\u2019s excellent pass.<\/p>\n

It was a stunning turn of events from the first two periods. Honestly, it felt like the game was over at that point, although unchecked former Canuck Ilya Mikheyev and Bertuzzi, on another bounce off the luckless Myers, poured more goals past Vancouver netminder Kevin Lankinen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle mishap on the first one they got,\u201d Canucks coach Adam Foote said. \u201cDefensively, we made a mistake. And I think we just got off a little bit from there. I don\u2019t know if it was fatigue from the trip, coming back. We just over-pressed. And you guys saw the rest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou knew they were going to come up with a better period than they probably had the first two,\u201d the Canucks\u2019 Kane explained. \u201cI’m sure they weren’t happy with their first two periods. And, you know, they get one that goes off a skate in the back door and then capitalize on the power play. I think obviously, we would have liked to probably get a couple in the first two periods and not let them hang around. But that’s the way the game goes sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It hadn\u2019t gone that way this season for the Canucks, who have been clinging desperately to games, not throwing them away.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely didn’t expect that,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cI mean, I guess that’s why you play 60 minutes, right? We had a great 40, but obviously fell apart there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, really frustrating,\u201d centre Lukas Reichel, now pointless in seven games since his trade from Chicago, told Sportsnet. \u201cWe had so many shots, so many chances, and couldn’t get one in. And then at the end, you know, they scored at the right time. That gives them momentum, and then their power play goes and we\u2019re chasing the game. But we were so good in the first two periods, so many chances. I felt like we had the game under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every Canuck skater except Sasson registered a shot. In the first two periods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kane finished with 10. Garland had seven. And DeBrusk, still without an even-strength goal this season, had four shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t even know what to say at this point,\u201d DeBrusk told us. \u201cIt\u2019s probably better to not say what I’m thinking. But it sucks. You know, we’ve had injuries, you want to step up, you want to do everything. But the game’s not coming to me at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, personally, I\u2019ve gone through it the whole year. This is just a gentle reminder of the last 15 games for me. But you try to stay positive. You can look at the shots, we had some power plays, we had multiple looks. If we do that more times than not, we win. But obviously in the moment, it stinks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kane-Pettersson-Garland
DeBrusk-Reichel-Boeser
O\u2019Connor-Raty-Sherwood
Bains-Sasson-Karlsson<\/p>\n

Hughes-Myers
M. Pettersson-Hronek
Joseph-Willander<\/p>\n

MacEachern, E. Pettersson (Junior)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2013 It wasn\u2019t the Vancouver Canucks\u2019 worst performance this season, just their most disappointing result. Having survived…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-265463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}