Naslund dominates Thrashers

 

Michail Boncea (HV)

 

There is no secret to the fact that Atlanta Thrashers coming into this game has one of the most deadly lines in the entire NHL and that line is Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa and Vyacheslav Kozlov. So Vancouver Canucks knew it had to focus on this line if they had any chance on winning the game. The surprise of the game came though from Vancouver Canucks who introduced a brand new third line which included Marcus Naslund and 2 young potentially up and coming Vancouver players but still playing in the minor leagues mostly by the names of Brandon Reid and Brad Moran.

 

The turning point of the game came in the night minute of the second period of the game when Vancouver scored 2 back to back goals 10 seconds apart. That allowed Vancouver to take a 3 goals lead and even though Atlanta scored 2 goals after that to make it close game, they just couldn’t beat Roberto Luongo when they needed the most. That is since in the last 5 minutes of the game Luongo stopped all 6 shots that he faced. In a way like Luongo has been the difference in many games this year for Vancouver games, he continued this trend into this game as well.

 

Vancouver Canucks Morrison scored the first goal in first period at 1:44 the assists went to Linden and Cooke. Vancouver Canucks Naslund scored the second goal of the game in the second period at 9:02 the assists went to Moran and Ohlund. Vancouver Canucks Morrison scored the third goal of the game in the second period at 9:12 the assists went to Salo and Linden. Atlanta Thrashers Sim scored the fourth goal of the game in the second period at 9:02 the assists went to Boulton and Hnidy. Atlanta Kovalchuk scored the final goal of the game in the third period at 14:31 and the assists went to Kozlov and Hossa.

© Michail Boncea (HV)