Jeff Misenti
The Vancouver Canucks lost 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers Arena on Thursday night, and the game got away from them long before the final horn.
Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli each finished with a goal and two assists, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves as Tampa Bay controlled most of the night.
The Lightning came in looking sharper after a rough patch and made that show early. Tampa Bay won its second straight game to open a four-game road trip, and its top line of Brandon Hagel, Cirelli, and Kucherov combined for eight points and finished plus-11.
That kind of edge is hard enough to handle when a team is rolling. For the Canucks, which was trying to win back-to-back home games for the first time this season, it was too much.
You can tell when a game is getting away from a team, and this one got slippery for the Canucks fast. The team was still in it after the first period, down only 1-0, but there was not much room to breathe, and once Tampa Bay hit the gas in the second, the night became very long.
At 17:37 of the first, Jake Guentzel opened the scoring with a deflection in the slot off a Charle-Edouard D’Astous point shot. Then came the flood. Darren Raddysh made it 2-0 just 49 seconds into the second, Yanni Gourde tipped in another at 4:16, and Kucherov pushed the lead to 4-0 at 5:31 when his shot bounced in off Filip Hronek near the crease.
A push that did not last
Liam Ohgren gave the Canucks a little life at 12:06 of the second, scoring off the rush from between the circles. Linus Karlsson added another at 7:04 of the third by batting a rebound out of the air after a strong chance from Marco Rossi.
For a split moment, despite being down 4-2, it felt like maybe the Canucks had finally made the building believe again. Belief that lasted for barely a moment.
Only 32 seconds later, Cirelli restored the three-goal lead at 7:36 when a Brandon Hagel pass went in off his skate at the top of the crease. Hagel then scored at 10:35 to close it out at 6-2.
Those last two goals took whatever suspense remained and flattened it.
Hard lesson, familiar feeling
Marco Rossi did his part with two assists, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 24 shots, but this was one of those nights when the gaps showed.
NHL.com reported the Canucks are now 3-3-1 in their past seven games after going 4-18-4 in the previous 26, which tells you this team has been a little steadier lately, but still has a long way to go.
Even the most hardened Canucks fan would admit that Tampa Bay was cleaner, faster, and more direct.
