Canucks special teams down Sabres
Canadian Press
1/20/2006 1:33:39 AM
VANCOUVER (CP) - The Vancouver Canucks are learning to protect a lead after a number of NHL games got away from them in December.
''We got some timely goals and we did what we had to do,'' Brendan Morrison said Thursday after Vancouver scored three unanswered third-period goals to beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1.
''We played pretty solid in our zone. They had some shots but a lot of them were from the outside.''
Morrison provided some breathing room with his second goal in as many games when he converted Steve McCarthy's rebound off netminder Ryan Miller's pad.
The goal came after Alex Burrows scored short-handed and Nolan Baumgartner scored on a power play for a 2-1 lead.
Jarkko Ruutu, with his career-high ninth goal of the season and second in three games, added an empty-netter on which goalie Alex Auld drew an assist.
Auld, who made 24 saves and was solid during some Sabres third-period puck control in the Vancouver end, said the Canucks are becoming more comfortable playing with the lead.
''I think we've done a great job understanding the time of the game and knowing what we have to do at certain times,'' said Auld, who was helped when Ales Kotalik and Tim Connolly hit posts.
''There was a while where every time we'd score a goal the other team would come back and score the next shift or within a couple of minutes.
''You've got to bear down the next shift after a goal either way. It's so huge because it's such momentum for a team to get one right back.''
Jason Pominville, who gave the Sabres a 1-1 tie entering the final period with a power-play goal, said Buffalo couldn't solve Auld.
''He was good,'' Pominville, who scored his fourth goal in five games, said of Auld. ''They limited our odd-man rushes, they clogged up the middle really well.
''We're a pretty good team and when we don't get those kind of chances it's kind of hard. We didn't battle and it ended up costing us at the end.''
The victory was also the sixth in the last seven games for the Canucks (27-15-5), who haven't lost at home to the Sabres since February 1999. Vancouver has won eight of nine starts against Eastern Conference foes.
The loss snapped a modest two-game winning streak for the Sabres (29-14-3), who remained four points behind the Northeast Division-leading Ottawa Senators.
The Canucks, who remained tied with the Calgary Flames atop the Northwest Division, opened the scoring on Burrows' splendid short-handed effort.
He raced down the ice on a two-on-one break and almost scored when his shot went off Miller's shoulder.
Burrows recovered the puck behind the net and tried to stuff it in. On his third attempt, he was falling with defenceman Brian Campbell draped over him but managed to scoop the puck in from a sharp angle.
''I got a shoulder on it, I got my glove on it and I got a stick on it,'' Miller said. ''Then I whiffed on it.
''I guess at some point that guy's got to get eliminated. It's just one of those communication things.''
The gritty Burrows, who has two goals in nine games as a Canuck, said energy is the biggest tool of his trade.
''That's what I'm all about. I want to work hard when I'm out there. I try to provide energy and hopefully I get the lucky bounce but if you work hard, I guess the bounces go your way.''
Notes: The game was the second of six away from home for the Sabres, their longest road trip of the season ... Matt Cooke, who missed 17 Vancouver games earlier this season with a broken jaw, is expected to be out at least one week with an ankle sprain suffered in practice ... It was Cooke's second injury in practice ... His lineup spot was taken by Tyler Bouck who has spent the season rehabilitating a torn groin muscle, another practice injury that occurred before the start of the regular season ... Also in the Canucks lineup was forward Josh Green, called up from the AHL Manitoba Moose.
Cheers,
Aquaman