Five for Fighting

Planes, Finns and brrrrr!

The Stars plane had some trouble when they first got to Edmonton, but everything is OK now. Nevertheless, they got a late start to practice.

Jere Lehtinen should be a go for tomorrow night. He gave a big sigh when I talked to him today, because he's said he's been on pins and needles for about a week now, just waiting to play again. He, Modano and Jussi Jokinen were on a line together.

It's friggin' cold here, folks. I think the temps are below zero tonight, hovered around zero during the day and will probably do the same tomorrow. I took the subway to Rexall Place, which was great, but had to walk around to the other side of the arena to get in for practice. I've never had such an agonizing 400-foot walk in my life. I'm truly out of practice with this cold weather.

Jere on Friday?

It's looking like a good possibility, depending on how he does at practice on Thursday in Edmonton. Lehtinen was skating with Mike Modano and Jussi Jokinen on Wednesday, so I'm sure Mo is feeling good about having an old partner coming back.

Pretty quiet day otherwise. It's a chilly day here in Vancouver, but it's nothing compared to what we're going into the next few days.

Marty's mask

Saw the comment about Marty Turco's mask last night, and indeed he has a "somewhat" new one. This one has a white background, yet still has the gargoyles/dragons that he has on his black one. These dragons, however, are a little bit lower on the mask. And one of the dragons has a little goatee... Marty said that's for Steve Ott, who has one of his own.

I think the dragon's goatee is in better shape :)

Whew!

That got a little too interesting late, didn't it? Anyway, those of us on killer deadlines were just happy we didn't have to start writing all over again. Headed to the locker room. Be back soon.

Ott scores a shorty

I need to ask him if that's his first career shorthanded goal. Something tells me he'll have a story to tell if he's had one before.

Anyway, the Stars were working this penalty kill brilliantly, and got the puck in the Canucks' zone for a good chunk of time. That led to Robidas feeding Halpern feeding Ott, who was alone in front of Drew MacIntyre. That's 4-1 at 7:30.

Two down...

The Stars had a strong second period, and they nearly missed being up 4-1 at least. Loui Eriksson just missed off a nice feed from Mike Ribeiro, and Antti Miettinen, taking a long pass from Marty Turco, hit the post.

Speaking of Turco, he's looking pretty good tonight. Great stop on Mattias Ohlund on a Vancouver power play, and it looks like he's seeing everything well.

Anyway, we're onto the third...

Robidas goal and goalie change

Stephane Robidas scores his third goal of the season, a power-play effort, to put the Stars up 3-1 at 4:31. That was apparently enough for the Canucks, as they pulled Curtis Sanford for Drew MacIntyre. Sanford gave up three goals on 10 shots.

All I know about MacIntyre (other than a cheer went up from the fans when he was put in), is he's played about a half of a game (27 minutes) against San Jose on Dec. 13. He gave up 2 goals on 11 shots.

Mo scores

We're just 1:30 into the second period and Mike Modano lasered one high over Curtis Sanford for a 2-1 Stars lead. Credit Niklas Hagman and Mattias Norstrom with assists on this one. It just developed fast and Modano didn't waste time with his blistering shot.

Shocker: We're tied

Sorry, folks, I'm having major computer problems tonight. Anyway: Trevor Daley got his second goal of the season when his shot deflected off Matt Cooke's stick at 15:54. And after all that, the Canucks tied it less than three minutes later, thanks to Henrik Sedin.

Wow, another close game with these two. I'm stunned. Absolutely stunned.

Lines

Sorry, I'm recovering from a lousy rendition of both the Star-Spangled Banner and the Canadian national anthem. Anyway, the lines:

Hagman-Modano-Jokinen
Morrow-Ribeiro-Miettinen
Eriksson-Halpern-Ott
Barnes-Lundqvist-Barch