Canucks 5 Wheelers 2

Grande Prairie -- A pair of Jason Higson goals paved the way for Dawson Creek's 5-2 victory over Grande Prairie Friday night.

Luca McKenzie opened the scoring at the 8:35 mark of the opening period and Higson quickly made it 2-0 on a nice passing play from John Howse and Charles Radke at the 10:56 mark.

Dawson Creek carried over their hot start into the second period when Reid Smith put a Colter MacLean pass home to stretch the lead. The 3-0 lead held up until midway through the frame when Ryan Vekved beat Cody Garnet on a breakaway to start a pretty crazy couple of minutes. A minute later another partial breakaway for the Wheelers and with a great deak around Garnett the puck missed a wide open net and hit the goal post. Grande Prairie felt that they had scored but play continued and the Canucks nearly capitalized.

3-1 into the third when Higson scored his second of the game at the 9:56 mark and Colter McLean added another at 12:17 on the power play to end the Dawson Creek scoring. The Wheelers would add a power play marker late to make the final score 5-2 for the Canucks.

The Canucks were 1 for 5 with the extra man while the Wheelers ended the game a disappointing 1 for 10.

=====

If you're looking for an idea as to what type of roster the Canucks are icing here is a look at the Roster from Friday night's game.

# Name
1 Cody Garnett
29 Cody Gayse
3 Tyson Keen
4 Tyson Stefanyk
7 Colter MacLean
8 Lewis Weaver
9 Nathan Bomben
10 John Howes
12 Alex Hornland
14 Reed Smith
15 Blaine Rogers
19 Justin McLeod
20 Jordon Clement
21 Mike Bouchard
22 Lucas McKenzie
24 Gerrit Lacey
27 Jason Higson
44 Charles Radke
2 Russell Weaver 'AP'

Next up for the Canucks is the home opener against the visiting Slave Lake Wolves Saturday night (tonight as it's 1:56am) at the Memorial Arena. A pretty nice tribute planned for the pre-game at the arena so pack the stands for, what should be, a pretty good hockey game.

The Canucks are hot and have been on quite a tear dating back to the third period last Friday in Fort St John.

=====

Bedtime for this broadcaster. Springs (our dog) and I have the day to ourselves tomorrow so we have big plans of doing nothing all day. Maybe some time to blog. Preview for tomorrow night to come.