John Gibson made 18 saves to record a shutout in his first NHL game Monday as the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Canucks 3-0 to officially eliminate Vancouver from playoff contention.
Daniel Winnik, Kyle Palmieri and Matt Beleskey had the goals for Anaheim (51-20-8), which is in a dog fight with the San Jose Sharks for first place in the Pacific Division.
Eddie Lack stopped 20 shots in his 19th straight start for Vancouver (35-33-11) since the Olympic break.
The Canucks’ post-season chances had been reduced to a mere mathematical possibility in recent weeks and they were finally knocked off the cliff by a Ducks team that looks primed for a long playoff run.
Despite being down 1-0 after a flat first period and with their season on the line, it was more of the same for Vancouver in the second as the Canucks iced the puck three times in the opening minutes of the period and collected just three shots in total.
Anaheim grabbed a 2-0 lead at 17:03 when Palmieri deflected a point shot home past Lack for his 14th goal of the season that seemed to deflate the Vancouver bench even further.
Prior to that back-breaker, the Canucks had a couple chances to at least direct pucks at Anaheim’s rookie netminder, but both Jannik Hansen and Daniel Sedin passed up shooting opportunities in favour of passes that failed to connect.
Vancouver had just nine shots to Anaheim’s 18 through two periods and there was a smattering of boos as the players left the ice for the intermission, with fans resigned to the fact that there will be no playoff hockey at Rogers Arena this spring for the first time since 2007-2008.
After the 2007-2008 season, general manager Dave Nonis was fired and replaced by current GM Mike Gillis, while Alain Vigneault was kept as coach. Following back-to-back apologies for the season by Gillis and coach Tortorella last week, it remains to be seen what will happen with this year’s leadership.
Once the hottest ticket in town, the lower bowl at Rogers Arena was dotted by hundreds of empty seats throughout the game, and many of the fans who did show up started heading to the exits long before
the final buzzer sounded.
Some of those who remained voiced their displeasure with Canucks president and general manager Mike Gillis by starting a “Fire Gillis” chant in the dying minutes.
Notes: The game marked Teemu Selanne’s final visit to Vancouver as a player. Set to retire after the post-season, 43-year-old has said repeatedly that the city is his favourite stop in the NHL. The Canucks honoured Selanne with a brief scoreboard tribute in the first period…The Ducks are 10-1-2 in the second of back-to-back games this season, including two wins against the Canucks.
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