1994–95 Vancouver Canucks season

1994–95 Vancouver Canucks
Division	2nd Pacific
Conference	6th Western
1994–95 record	18–18–12
Home record	10–8–6
Road record	8–10–6
Goals for	153
Goals against	148
Team information
General manager	Pat Quinn
Coach	Rick Ley
Captain	Trevor Linden
Alternate captains	Pavel Bure Dana Murzyn Sergio Momesso
Arena	Pacific Coliseum
Average attendance	13,932
Team leaders
Goals	Pavel Bure (20)
Assists	Pavel Bure (23)
Points	Pavel Bure (43)
Penalty minutes	Dana Murzyn (129)
Wins	Kirk McLean (18)
Goals against average	Kirk McLean (2.75)

The 1994–95 Vancouver Canucks season was the Canucks' 25th NHL season. Goaltender Kirk McLean accounted for all of the Canucks' 18 wins. Pavel Bure did not have the same power he did in 1992-93 and 1993-94, the two seasons in which he reached the 60-goal mark, but he still led the club in 1994-95 in goals (20) and shots (198). A trade with the Dallas Stars on April 7, 1995 saw the Russ Courtnall join his brother Geoff on the same team. The Canucks finished the season at .500 for 6th place in the Western Conference and led the NHL with 12 ties.

In the playoffs, Vancouver was the clear underdog against the 3rd-place St. Louis Blues, who had members from the 1994 Stanley-Cup champion Ranger team and former Rangers head coach Mike Keenan. After losing game 1 at the Kiel Center by a score of 2-1, the Canucks won game 2 by a score of 5-3 behind Kirk McLean's 33-save performance and Pavel Bure's shorthanded insurance goal in the third period. The shots on goal were 26 for Vancouver and 36 for St. Louis, as they had been in game 1. The Canucks carried over their momentum from their win in game 2 to the Pacific Coliseum for game 3, which they won 6-1. Sergio Momesso scored twice. The Canucks were looking to win game 4 as well, leading 2-1 after Russ Courtnall's shorthanded goal ot 4:41 of the second period. But the Blues got their jump from Brendan Shanahan who scored a natural hat trick to give the Blues a 4-2 lead. Glenn Anderson would add another goal at 13:01 of the third period as St. Louis went on to win 5-2 to square the series at 2 games apiece. In game 5 at the Kiel Center, the Canucks scored 4 times on their first 19 shots, as Curtis Joseph would be pulled in favor of Jon Casey. Trailing Vancouver 5-4 with under 12 minutes to play, Murray Baron tied the game at 8:22 of the third period. The game would go into overtime where Cliff Ronning scored at 1:48 of the first overtime period to give the Canucks a 3-2 lead in the series. Looking to close out the series at home in game 6, the Canucks were dominated by the Blues who won by a score of 8-2. Esa Tikkanen picked up 4 points in the game (2 goals, 2 assists). Kirk McLean allowed 6 goals on just 17 shots. With the series tied at 3-3, a crucial game 7 in St. Louis took place on Friday, May 19. Although the Blues had twice as many shots as the Canucks (44-22), Curtis Joseph allowed 4 goals on 21 shots while Kirk McLean made 41 saves. Pavel Bure added an empty-net goal with 22 seconds remaining to seal the game 5-3 and give the Canucks a 4-3 series win. It was Bure's 7th goal of the playoffs. It was a highly offensive series, as each team scored 27 goals over the 7 games. The Canucks' soecial teams dominated throughout, as Vancouver scored 11 power-play goals and 6 shorthanded goals in the series.

In the second round, the Canucks faced the Chicago Blackhawks. Both teams skated to a 1-1 tie before Joe Murphy scored the winner at 9:04 of the first overtime period. Blackhawks goaltender Ed Belfour stopped 26 of 27 Vancouver shots. Game 2 was also close, as Chicago edged Vancouver 2-0 on goals by Jim Cummins and Patrick Poulin. Down 2 games to none in the series, the Canucks battled desperately to get a win at home in game 3 but relinquished leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Ironically it was ex-Canuck Murray Craven who tied the game at 2-2 with 45 seconds remaining in the third period to send the game to overtime. Chris Chelios scored at 6:22 of the first overtime period as the Hawks took a commanding 3 games to none series lead. In game 4, Vancouver broke a 1-1 tie on two goals by Roman Oksiuta to lead 3-1 in the second period, but Chicago came back again on goals by Gerald Diduck and Jeremy Roenick, and so the score after 60 minutes was 3-3. Once again, the overtime hero was Chris Chelios who scored 5:35 into the extra frame to give the Blackhawks a 4-0 sweep over the Canucks and advance to the third round for the first time in three years.

Regular season

Pacific Division

No.	CR		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
1	2	Calgary Flames	48	24	17	7	163	135	55
2	6	Vancouver Canucks	48	18	18	12	153	148	48
3	8	San Jose Sharks	48	19	25	4	129	161	42
4	9	Los Angeles Kings	48	16	23	9	142	174	41
5	11	Edmonton Oilers	48	17	27	4	136	183	38
6	12	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	48	16	27	5	125	164	37

Note: No. = Division rank, CR = Conference rank, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
       Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Game log

No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	T	January 20, 1995	1–1 OT	Dallas Stars (1994–95)	0–0–1
2	L	January 21, 1995	1–7	St. Louis Blues (1994–95)	0–1–1
3	L	January 24, 1995	3–6	@ Detroit Red Wings (1994–95)	0–2–1
4	L	January 25, 1995	2–6	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1994–95)	0–3–1
5	W	January 28, 1995	3–1	@ St. Louis Blues (1994–95)	1–3–1
6	T	February 1, 1995	4–4 OT	Toronto Maple Leafs (1994–95)	1–3–2
7	L	February 5, 1995	4–9	Chicago Blackhawks (1994–95)	1–4–2
8	T	February 7, 1995	4–4 OT	Edmonton Oilers (1994–95)	1–4–3
9	W	February 9, 1995	5–1	Winnipeg Jets (1994–95)	2–4–3
10	T	February 11, 1995	1–1 OT	San Jose Sharks (1994–95)	2–4–4
11	L	February 15, 1995	1–3	@ San Jose Sharks (1994–95)	2–5–4
12	T	February 17, 1995	2–2 OT	@ Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (1994–95)	2–5–5
13	W	February 18, 1995	6–2	@ Los Angeles Kings (1994–95)	3–5–5
14	W	February 20, 1995	8–2	Los Angeles Kings (1994–95)	4–5–5
15	L	February 22, 1995	1–4	Winnipeg Jets (1994–95)	4–6–5
16	T	February 24, 1995	3–3 OT	@ Dallas Stars (1994–95)	4–6–6
17	W	February 26, 1995	5–1	@ San Jose Sharks (1994–95)	5–6–6
18	L	February 28, 1995	3–4	San Jose Sharks (1994–95)	5–7–6
19	T	March 2, 1995	2–2 OT	@ Calgary Flames (1994–95)	5–7–7
20	W	March 4, 1995	5–4	@ Los Angeles Kings (1994–95)	6–7–7
21	L	March 6, 1995	2–5	Detroit Red Wings (1994–95)	6–8–7
22	W	March 11, 1995	5–3	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (1994–95)	7–8–7
23	W	March 12, 1995	5–2	@ Edmonton Oilers (1994–95)	8–8–7
24	T	March 14, 1995	3–3 OT	@ Winnipeg Jets (1994–95)	8–8–8
25	L	March 16, 1995	2–9	@ Chicago Blackhawks (1994–95)	8–9–8
26	L	March 17, 1995	1–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1994–95)	8–10–8
27	W	March 21, 1995	3–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1994–95)	9–10–8
28	L	March 23, 1995	1–3	Chicago Blackhawks (1994–95)	9–11–8
29	L	March 25, 1995	1–2	Detroit Red Wings (1994–95)	9–12–8
30	L	March 26, 1995	0–2	@ Calgary Flames (1994–95)	9–13–8
31	W	March 29, 1995	5–2	Los Angeles Kings (1994–95)	10–13–8
32	W	March 31, 1995	6–1	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (1994–95)	11–13–8
33	W	April 1, 1995	5–1	@ Edmonton Oilers (1994–95)	12–13–8
34	T	April 4, 1995	2–2 OT	Dallas Stars (1994–95)	12–13–9
35	L	April 7, 1995	4–7	@ Winnipeg Jets (1994–95)	12–14–9
36	W	April 8, 1995	4–2	@ Calgary Flames (1994–95)	13–14–9
37	W	April 11, 1995	5–0	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (1994–95)	14–14–9
38	L	April 13, 1995	4–6	Edmonton Oilers (1994–95)	14–15–9
39	W	April 15, 1995	3–1	@ Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (1994–95)	15–15–9
40	T	April 17, 1995	2–2 OT	@ Dallas Stars (1994–95)	15–15–10
41	L	April 18, 1995	1–4	@ St. Louis Blues (1994–95)	15–16–10
42	T	April 20, 1995	2–2 OT	Calgary Flames (1994–95)	15–16–11
43	W	April 22, 1995	6–1	Edmonton Oilers (1994–95)	16–16–11
44	L	April 25, 1995	3–4 OT	@ Chicago Blackhawks (1994–95)	16–17–11
45	L	April 26, 1995	2–5	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1994–95)	16–18–11
46	W	April 28, 1995	3–1	St. Louis Blues (1994–95)	17–18–11
47	W	April 30, 1995	6–4	Calgary Flames (1994–95)	18–18–11
48	T	May 3, 1995	3–3 OT	@ San Jose Sharks (1994–95)	18–18–12

Player stats

Regular season

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	PIM

Goaltending

Note: GP = Games Played; TOI = Time On Ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals Against; SO = Shutouts; Sv% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals Against Average

Playoffs

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	PIM

Goaltending

Note: GP = Games Played; TOI = Time On Ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; GA = Goals Against; SO = Shutouts; Sv% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals Against Average

Player

GP

TOI

W

L

GA

SO

Sv%

GAA