Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Flames-Canucks: 204 PIM, Henrik Sedin hurt, Vancouver wins in SO

Brian McGrattan, Tom Sestito

Calgary Flames right wing Brian McGrattan (16) and Vancouver Canucks left wing Tom Sestito (29) fall to the ice as they fight during the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014, in Vancouver, British Columbia. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

AP

Tonight’s game between the Flames and Canucks got off to an unusual start, but Vancouver has to be happy with the conclusion.

The game didn’t even really start until after Calgary and Vancouver got a line brawl out of their system that resulted in a combined 142 penalty minutes:

Canucks coach John Tortorella was infuriated with Calgary because they decided to start their tough guys. He even went so far as to confront the Flames just outside of their dressing room after the first intermission:

In the end, these two teams combined for 204 penalty minutes. Lost in all of that was the fact that this was goaltender Roberto Luongo’s return from an ankle injury. He gave the Canucks the kind of performance they needed and led the team to their 3-2 shootout victory.

This was also technically Kellan Lain’s NHL debut, although it only lasted for two seconds because he got booted from the contest for participating in the opening line brawl.

It was just Vancouver’s second win in 10 games, but the game had implications that might extend beyond the fights and the two points. Henrik Sedin didn’t join his teammates on the bench when the third period started. The Canucks haven’t provided any details about his condition yet, but he was questionable for the game to begin with due to a rib injury.

Participating in tonight’s contest extended Sedin’s ironman streak to 680 games. Vancouver will play against Edmonton on Tuesday.

“Tortos told us they were starting their idiots over there, so we had to match that,” a thing Tom Sestito actually just said

— Katie Strang (@KatieStrangESPN) January 19, 2014

Related:

Video: Canucks-Flames game kicks off with line brawl (Update: It got worse)

Follow @RyanDadoun