This is what happens when a hockey team plays for 60 minutes!

They win!

After that fight and penalty in the opening period, the Canucks took it to the Wild. First by scoring on their powerplay, second by outshooting the Wild and lastly, the Canucks 4th line outplaying their 4th line.

A lot of things went right for this team, though I'm sure Jason Jaffray would beg to differ since his fight with Brent Burns did not go as well as he probably planned.

Offensively, we kept putting on the pressure. There was some good forechecking, especially from the 4th line, and we pretty much kept the puck in their zone for long periods of time. The D helped a lot in that aspect since there were a lot of times when they held the puck in to sustain that pressure. If it wasn't for the good goaltending of Niklas Backstrom (flip side is if the Canucks had more finish :P), then we would have blown this game out.

We only had 1 full powerplay, and we scored on it, thank God. I was already getting anxious and ready to preach about "NHL SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DECLINE PENALTIES LIKE THE NFL", luckily, Kevin Bieksa scored in the last few seconds. No matter, the Canucks still stunk it up in the PP in general.

Is it just me or we can never hold the puck in? I mean, I look at other team's PP and their point men seem to have the uncanny ability to hold every puck we try to clear. With the Canucks PP... it just doesn't happen. They should practice on that :P. Get someone to constantly ring it around the boards and someone rush to stop it?

Oh well.

As for the defense... Does the Wild have some vendetta against Willie tonight? First there was Burns who tried to kill him every single time he was on the ice, then Lemaire ices Boogaard to try to take his head off, too... Oh well. :P Willie wins this one with his pearly white teeth and perfect smile!

Okay, that really wasn't about the defense, but Willie. XD

Honestly, the defense played more stable this game than the past 4 games we've lost. Crisp passes to clear the puck out, active sticks, knew when to block, cleared the crease crashers away from Schneider, followed their assignments... Yeah they were pretty good. They weren't running around like headless chickens this game, and as a result, they held the Wild to 17 shots.

Those 17 shots really helped Schneider on his way to his first NHL win.

Boy was he fantastic. Even though he did not face a lot of shots, the Wild had quite a few quality scoring chances, but he was ready and made the save on all of them. The only goal he let in was due to Ohlund knocking him over. Everything else he was ready for. He hasn't really looked shaky since his first NHL start. Now that the defense is playing how they should be playing, we won the game.

The game in general was fantastic. Lots of hits, quite a few scrums, and a few fights. All topped off by a Canucks win and the first NHL win for our young prospect? Yeah, it was perfect.

And right. Not a lot of lazy penalties, other than Pyatt's brainfart at the end of the game. What is more surprising is that SOB does not have a penalty or a fighting major in this emotional game? What up SOB? :P

Now, let's hope they continue playing like this against the Avs. They're pretty much the only NW team we haven't beaten this year and it sucks.