Canucks win wild one over the Flames

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames erupted in a line brawl just two seconds after the opening faceoff in a spirited affair, which Vancouver went on to win 3-2 in a shootout.

The teams both started their fourth lines, and the ensuing madness resulted in eight ejections. The Canucks lost defencemen Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis, and forwards Dale Weise and Kellan Lain, while the Flames had to go without Ladislav Smid, Kevin Westgarth, Blair Jones and Chris Butler. All were given game misconducts for participating in secondary fights. Tom Sestito and Brian McGrattan were the original combatants and remained in the game.

The rough stuff continued through the first period, which was goalless, and then the bad blood culminated with Canucks coach John Torterella trying to get into the Flames locker room in the first intermission. Torterella had to be held back by assistant coach Glen Gulutzan. He told reporters after the game that he wasn’t proud of what happened and had apologized to his players.

The scoring was finally opened early in the second period. Calgary captain Mark Giordano had the puck slide to him in the slot off a faceoff, and he put in through Roberto Luongo to make it 1-0.

Vancouver responded a little over two minutes later. With Ryan Kesler driving to the net, Zack Kassian put the puck in front, and Kesler tipped it through the pads of Karri Ramo to tie it up.

Calgary took its second lead of the game at the 4:01 mark of the third period. A bouncing puck found its way to Matt Stajan’s stick and he roofed a backhander over Luongo to make it 2-1.

The Canucks pulled even for a second time on a Yannick Weber powerplay one-timer with 8:12 remaining. It was Weber’s second goal of the season.

After overtime solved nothing the teams needed a shootout. Joe Colborne scored to kick things off for the Flames but Weber levelled things for the Canucks when he scored in the second round. Chris Higgins then put a backhander five-hole to win it for Vancouver in the fifth round.

Luongo made his return to the Canucks crease after missing six games with an ankle injury. He made 31 saves and stopped four more in the shootout.

Canucks captain Henrik Sedin did play even though he was a game-time decision with an injury. He didn’t finish the night though, as he never came out of the room for the third period.

Lain was playing in his first career game and set a new NHL record for fastest fight to begin a career.

The win was just the second in the past 10 games for Vancouver. The Canucks are back in action on Tuesday when they visit the Edmonton Oilers.