VANCOUVER -- When the Vancouver Canucks hired John Tortorella, performances like Saturday nights were probably what they envisioned.
Nicolas Batum Hornets Jersey . Fast, aggressive forecheck and relentless puck pressure in all three zones are
hallmarks of the fiery coachs style, and it was all on display against the
overmatched Edmonton Oilers. Dan Hamhuis and Jannik Hansen scored 18 seconds
apart late in the first period as the Canucks cruised to a 6-2 victory over the
Oilers in Vancouvers home opener. "Thats the way we want to play. Thats the way
we want to continue to play and we want to enforce that on other teams," said
Canucks centre Ryan Kesler, who scored in the second period. "We want to do that
every night. We want to win that way." Daniel Sedin had a goal and an assist,
and Brad Richardson and Jason Garrison -- into an empty net -- also scored for
the Canucks (1-1-0) as Roberto Luongo made 21 saves. Henrik Sedin picked up
three assists as Vancouver rebounded from Thursdays season-opening 4-1 road loss
to the San Jose Sharks in impressive fashion. "We were aggressive, we put a lot
of pressure on their (defence)," said Henrik Sedin. "We didnt really play this
way for the last couple of years, we were sitting back a little bit more and
played a little more on the safe side." Tortorella, who replaced the fired Alain
Vigneault in the off-season, has answered repeated questions about the players
ability to adapt to his system. The Canucks showed spurts in their
season-opening road loss to San Jose but Saturdays performance was closer to
what the coach envisioned. "We were pretty consistent tonight in our attack,"
said Tortorella. "(Im) pretty satisfied with that part of the game." Luongo,
back as Vancouvers No. 1 goalie after the the Canucks traded Cory Scheinder to
the New Jersey Devils, had a good view of his teams domination of Edmonton.
"Thats one of the best games Ive seen this team play in a long time," said
Luongo. "It was 60 minutes. It was hard. We sustained pressure the whole game."
Jeff Petry and Boyd Gordon had the goals for the Oilers (0-2-0). Devan Dubnyk
allowed five goals on 31 shots before being replaced in the second period by
Jason LaBarbera. The Edmonton backup finished with 12 saves. Oilers rookie head
coach Dallas Eakins has spent the pre-season trying to shake the teams image of
being in rebuild mode, stressing that the time to win is now. Its clearly going
to take some time. "Old habits die hard," Eakins said. "I was encouraged with
certain things going through the pre-season. I was more encouraged even though
we let that game get away against Winnipeg (a 5-4 season-opening home loss).
"Tonight we are back to square one. This isnt going to be an easy process here.
We will dig our heels in and continue on." After the teams exchanged goals in
the games first four minutes, the Canucks carried the play for the rest of the
period, with Hamhuis and Hansen beating Dubnyk in quick succession late to give
Vancouver a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes. Hamhuis made it 2-1 with a shot from just
inside the Edmonton blue-line that took a deflection off Petrys stick with 1:33
left in the period. The fans at Rogers Arena had barely sat down from
celebrating that goal when Hansen, who took the spot of the injured Alexandre
Burrows on Vancouvers top line, beat Dubnyk from the slot to give his team a 3-1
edge at 18:45 as the Canucks closed out the period with a 22-8 advantage on the
shot clock. Vancouver then made it 4-1 on the power play at 7:21 of the second
on a picture-perfect passing play. Alexander Edler fed Henrik Sedin, who in turn
found his brother Daniel with a no-look spin-o-rama pass in front of a helpless
Dubnyk. The Vancouver onslaught continued at 13:56 when Kesler ripped a shot
past Dubnyk from the top of the faceoff circle with the teams playing 4-on-4.
That spelled the end of the night for the Edmonton goaltender, who was replaced
by LaBarbera. "We shot a lot tonight. It was good to see. We had a lot of second
and third opportunities. When you shoot that much youre going to get six goals,"
said Kesler, who finished with nine shots. "You shoot that much, you play that
much with the puck, youre going to tire out the other team." Gordon gave
Edmonton some life when he scored off an odd-man rush at 15:23 but the Oilers
still trailed by three after two periods and wouldnt get any closer in the third
before Garrison iced it with a short-handed empty-net goal at 18:16. The Oilers
got on the board first at 1:58 of the opening period when Petry beat Luongo
five-hole from a sharp angle with both teams down a man. But the lead didnt last
long as Richardson, who joined the Canucks as a free agent in the off-season,
raced in on a short-handed breakaway and beat Dubnyk between the pads to tie the
score at 3:42 before Hamhuis and Hansen scored late in the period. "We really
did come out OK," said Oilers left-winger Taylor Hall, who was minus-4. "We
scored the first goal. They scored right after that and we just kind of fell off
the wagon there." Notes: Garrison also added an assist. ... Burrows is expected
to miss a couple of weeks after breaking a bone in his foot blocking a shot in
the loss to San Jose. ... David Booth took Hansens spot on the second line with
Kesler and Chris Higgins. ... Edmonton lost left-winger Jesse Joensuu to a back
injury in the first period. Eakins said he will be re-evaluated Sunday. ... The
Oilers were without centres Sam Gagner (broken jaw) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
(shoulder surgery). Edmonton expects to have Nugent-Hopkins back for Mondays
home game against the New Jersey Devils. Canucks right-winger Zack Kassian
served the fifth game of his eight-game suspension for the hit that broke
Gagners jaw.
Marvin Williams Hornets Jersey .J. -- New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is going to start the off-season training
program with a surgically repaired left ankle.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Pistons Swingman Jersey . With Washington teammate Nene drawing double-teams coming off his big game against the Lakers, Gortat scored 25 points on 11-of-12
shooting and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Wizards to a 100-92 win in
overtime over Milwaukee on Wednesday night.MONCTON, N.B. - Asisat Oshoala scored
four goals to lift Nigeria to a 6-2 victory over North Korea at the FIFA U-20
Womens World Cup semifinal at Moncton Stadium on Wednesday. Nigeria will face
Germany, which beat France 2-1 in the other semi on Wednesday in Montreal, in
the championship match on Sunday. Oshoala scored in the 24th minute to give
Nigeria a 2-0 advantage, and added her other three goals in a 25-minute span in
the second half. Courtney Dike and Uchechi Sunday also scored for tthe winning
side.
Harrison Barnes USA Jersey. Jon So Yon, on a penalty kick in the 62nd minute, and Ri Un Sim replied for North Korea. The
North Koreans will play France in the third-place match on Sunday. At Montreals
Olympic Stadium, Lena Petermanns goal in the 81st minute stood up as the winner
as Germany edged France in the later semifinal match. Pauline Bremer scored in
the 12th minute to give Germany a 1-0 edge, but Griedge Mbock Bathy replied for
France to tie the game in the 45th.
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