Hedberg backstops Canucks to victory
Canadian Press
2/29/2004
VANCOUVER (CP) - Johan Hedberg's best save Saturday night was his last one.
Hedberg turned away 31 shots, including a penalty shot attempt by Pavol Demitra with 3.4 seconds left, as the Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues 2-0 for their third straight win.
The automatic delay-of-game penalty shot was called after defenceman Bryan Allen knocked his net off its moorings in the dying seconds.
``I was surprised they called a penalty shot - I didn't know that was the rule,'' said Hedberg, whose last shutout came in his Canucks debut. Oct. 11.
``It was an interesting end to the game.''
St. Louis chose Demitra, who has 17 goals this season and had a couple of earlier great chances on Hedberg, to take the shot. He deked several times before trying to wrap a backhand shot around Hedberg but the Canucks' backup goaltender stayed with him and gloved his shot.
``I made my move,'' said Demitra. ``Maybe I should have put it a little bit higher on him. He was quick. I was thinking I got him but his glove was right there.''
Hedberg, who was ``trying to make the most'' of his first start in two weeks, said he wanted to wait for Demitra to make the first move.
``I thought he was going to shoot,'' said Hedberg. ``I tried to come out as far as I could to see what was going to happen and make him make the first move. It worked out this time.''
Artem Chubarov made it 1-0 early in the second period and Mattias Ohlund iced the win with a power-play goal with under five minutes to go in the game.
The Canucks (35-19-7-4) now have 81 points this season, one shy of the Northwest-Division leading Colorado Avalanche, who lost in overtime to Columbus on Saturday. The Avs will play one more game before squaring off against Vancouver on Wednesday.
``It's going to be a huge game,'' said Ohlund, who has 10 goals this season. ``We're looking forward to that game and going into that game with a lot of confidence.''
Chris Osgood made 27 saves for the Blues (30-24-8-2), who are winless in two games since Mike Kitchen replaced Joel Quenneville behind the bench. The Blues remain ninth in the Western Conference, two points behind the idle Calgary Flames for the last playoff spot.
``I feel confident in there and I'm just trying to give the team a chance to win ever night,'' said Osgood. ``We're struggling the last month, but I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and I know the guys will come through and start scoring some goals.''
The game had its feisty moments. In the first period, three players - Vancouver's Matt Cooke and Blues' Doug Weight and Eric Boguniecki - were called for unsportsmanlike conduct on the same play. Tkachuk was sent to the box in the third for the same call.
Tkachuk, who had a couple of good chances on Hedberg, later took a verbal shot at Cooke. Tkachuk said Cooke, who was playing in his second game back after a two-game suspension for spearing Minnesota's Matt Johnson, has no respect because he plays an agitating role but doesn't back it up by dropping the gloves.
``He's a gutless kid,'' said Tkachuk. ``His teammates know it, everybody around the league knows it ... Until he does something out there (he won't) get the respect. Right now he has no respect from anybody around the league.''
When told of what Tkachuk said, Cooke replied, ``I have no comment.''
Vancouver finished 1-for-7 on the power play while St. Louis was 0-for-4.
The Blues outshot the Canucks 31-29 overall.
After a scoreless first period, the Canucks cashed in on a bad clearing attempt by Osgood less than five minutes into the second frame. Osgood picked up the puck behind his net and tried to clear it out of his own zone but it hit a teammate and went to Chubarov, who released a long shot that deflected off the top of the goaltender's glove and into the net.
``I got lucky on that goal but those goals happen,'' said Chubarov.
Vancouver had a chance to go up by two goals when they were awarded a two-man advantage for 1:22 but, despite calling a timeout to try to set up a play, they failed to cash in.
The Canucks made it 2-0 late in the third on their seventh power-play chance after Osgood lost his stick. The puck came around to Ohlund at the point, who blasted a slapshot that ended up going past the goalie stickside.
``We just weren't disciplined,'' said Osgood. ``You roll the dice against their power play that many times, they're going to score. When you get (Brent) Sopel, Ohlund and (Sami) Salo, that's three guys that shoot the puck like Al MacInnis. You can only roll the dice so many times with those guys when they're firing away.''
Notes: Osgood is 13-4-4 in his career against the Canucks ... Vancouver has scored just four times in their past 43 power-play chances ... This was the first of two games in a 22-hour span for the Blues, who will wrap up a three-game road trip in San Jose on Sunday ... The Canucks finish their season-series against the Blues with a record of 3-1-0-0.
Cheers,
Aquaman