8 November 1981: Winnipeg scored on its first four shots of the game to run Glen Hanlon right out of the Pacific Coliseum, and then cruised to an easy win. You knew it was going to be a bad night for the Canucks when the opening face-off was controlled by the Jets and Tim Watters sent Paul McLean streaking into the offensive zone to wrist one under the arm of Hanlon only THIRTEEN seconds into game. You knew it was going to be a REALLY bad night when Winnipeg again controlled the ensuing puck drop, took it back into the attacking third, and played tic-tac-toe Dave Christian-to-Dave Babych-to-Morris Luckowich for a second goal with less then forty total seconds elapsed. Vancouver were shell-shocked and, while they held it together and gradually began to have more possessional play than the visitors, Norm DuPont scored on WPG's next shot at 7:06, and then Dale Hawerchuck on their fourth at 11:09. Hanlon’s sudden bout of PTSD only lasted another two minutes - when Thomas Steen scored the fifth Jets goal on their eighth shot, Roger Neilson played the mercy card and brought Richard Brodeur on for Hanlon (and his 0.375 save percentage).
The two teams traded power-play goals in the first five minutes of the second before Willy Lindström’s goal after six minutes gave Winnipeg a 7-1 lead and the contest officially moved into “game management” mode for the Jets. The Canucks dominated the final twenty minutes, out-shooting Winnipeg 16-4 and scoring three times, but the last one came with less than four minutes to go and there was never any doubt as to the final outcome. Luckowich (2G, A) and Babych (3 A, 2 hits, 2 blocks) had three points apiece to lead the Jets, while Ivan Boldirev (2 G) and Rick Lanz (2 A) made the most of a miserable evening for Vancouver. FINAL: Winnipeg 7, Vancouver 4.
Contribution to the Facebook co-op replay . . .
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| Dave Babych leads the Jets with his two-way play |
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