It was like two shows in one at GM Place Friday night.
Not only did the Canucks win 5-2 over the Colorado Avalanche, but fans were also treated to a surprising performance by the Hoff himself. Christian Ehrhoff, that is.
Having been the Canucks most consistent player so far this season, the defenceman dominated offensively, with two goals and an assist, and was stellar defensively as well, sporting a plus-two, to lead Vancouver to their third straight home victory.
Bobby Hoff, as Roberto Luongo cleverly puts it in comparison to Bobby Orr, nearly got the hattrick late in the game but rang one off the goal post.
"I tried for it," Ehrhoff said. "I had enough chances for the hattrick but I couldn't finish it off."
Ehrhoff's two tallies, his most ever in one game, tied the score up at two after the Canucks fell down 2-0 early on, while his assist came on Steve Bernier's cushion goal to make it 4-2.
"He played unbelievable," said Luongo, who made 22 saves. "It was one of the best games by a defenceman that I've ever seen. He was flying out there and you can tell he really wanted a hattrick out there in the third."
The victory, their second straight, improves the Canucks home record to 8-2, and their overall record to 12-10.
While the long breaks between games have not been nice to the Canucks this season, the trend nearly continued Friday.
Coming off five days of no action, the home team started out flat, allowing two straight powerplay goals in the first period to David Jones and Matt Duchene.
But Vancouver managed to find their legs in the last two frames, scoring five unanswered goals on 27 shots.
"I thought we got off to a decent start," said Alex Burrows, who contributed a pretty assist to Henrik Sedin for the game winner. "We stuck with it after the first period. We said let's just stick with our game plan, keep getting pucks to the net, and that's what we were able to do and it worked out."
Henrik's goal was his 13th of the season, and his fourth in the last two games after recording a hattrick against the Avalanche last Saturday.
Mikael Samuelsson added a goal and two assist, while Kyle Wellwood broke a nine-game point slump with a helper in the second.
In also the Canucks first appearance at home since November 3rd against the New York Rangers, Vancouver finished 2 for 4 on the penalty kill while going 2 for 3 on the powerplay.
Note: Despite being put on waivers earlier in the day, Matt Pettinger dressed for the Canucks and had 8:37 of ice time.
