Cloutier goes after Roloson before being pulled
Terry Bell, The Province
CANADA.COM
Well, at least Dan Cloutier showed his feisty side Monday.
After the worst period by a Canucks team in playoff history, the beleaguered goalie skated to centre ice at the end of the second period and took a couple of punches at Dwayne Roloson after the Minnesota Wild goalie had been shoving with Trevor Linden.
Cloutier was tagged with a double minor for roughing and leaving his crease.
Leaving his crease. What a concept. He'd probably have preferred to bail much earlier, as the Wild riddled him with five second-period goals on 12 shots and romped to a 7-2 win that closed the Canucks' lead to 3-2 in this best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal.
"I don't want to comment on that ... things just happen," Cloutier, who was replaced by Alex Auld to start the third period, said of his rumble with Roloson.
Cloutier probably didn't want to talk much about all the goals either, but he did.
"We can't kid ourselves, this wasn't good," said Cloutier. "Starting from me on out, we all have to be better. We just have to forget about it, go to Minnesota and play the way we can.
Canucks coach Marc Crawford said Cloutier wasn't very good. But he said that about everybody.
"He was the same as everybody else," Crawford said. "He was impatient and his battle level wasn't the highest."
Cloutier was beaten on the game's first shot, Richard Park burying the puck past him after it had ricocheted off Trevor Linden. It came at 3:20 of the first period.
The second goal didn't come till 1:08 of the second period, Cliff Ronning doing the deed. By the 16:07 mark, when Ronning beat him again, Cloutier had been ventilated by Jason Marshall, Andrew Brunette and Marian Gaborik. Of course, Cloutier couldn't be blamed for all of the goals, but he was weak on too many of them.
How will Cloutier react in Game 6 on Wednesday back in St. Paul? Of course no one mentioned last year's postseason meltdown against Detroit.
"I'm confident," he said. "This one is over with."
Canucks fans can only hope.