By Pearl Allison Lo

~ San Jose and Vancouver rung in their preseason in front of and to the delight of smaller fan bases in Kraft Hockeyville, and the “home” team winning 1-0 in overtime Monday, was the icing..

A scoreless regulation led to the showcase of the new 3-on-3 overtime as well. The lone goal was scored by Adam Cracknell with 3:22 left. Cracknell was aided by Jannik Hansen and Matt Bartkowski. It was Cracknell’s debut as a Canuck, as he scored against goalie Aaron Dell. “If you’re going to have a guy be a hero in overtime, you’d like it to be the hometown guy,” said Vancouver assistant coach Perry Pearn, filling in for head coach Willie Desjardins.

Though Kraft Hockeyville was awarded to North Saanich, in Victoria, B.C, Canada, the actual game was played in Colwood, because of the need for more space. The Sharks played in their first Kraft Hockeyville game, while the Canucks played a Kraft Hockeyville game in 2009.  

Both teams had at least one power play in the first period.

The Canucks made it 2-2 in terms of power play opportunities when Alexander Edler was booked less than a minute into the second.

Both teams switched to new goalies midway through the second period. Dell came in for Troy Grosenick and Jacob Markstrom came in for Richard Bachman.  

San Jose’s Tomas Hertl made sure each team had a power play in the second as well, as he committed a penalty with one second left.

The $100,000 check that came along with the Kraft Hockeyville award, was presented during second intermission for renovations to Panorama Recreation Centre in North Saanich.

There was only one power play opportunity in the third, which came when Cracknell was called for holding with six minutes left. Teammate Christopher Tanev had two shots on goal with 19 seconds left and nine seconds left.

In OT, the only other shot on goal came by Vancouver’s Sven Baertschi with 3:57 left. The Canucks had an extra player on the ice at the time of the goal, due to a delayed penalty.

The game came full circle when the Sharks’ Tommy Wingels said, “We all come from rinks similar to this, so to play a game here at this point in our careers is special. You see the fans and the kids who hope to be in our position one day and at this point, it’s kind of like we’d like to go back and be in their position for a couple days.”

Game notes: 12 players on San Jose’s roster had previously played for them at some point. Vancouver’s Chris Higgins’ had to exit early due to a blocked shot. The United States will have their own Kraft Hockeyville for the first time on September 29. Both the Sharks and Canucks rematch on Tuesday at 7pm in Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.