Sharks keep Canucks at bay
Canadian Press
1/12/2003
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Miikka Kiprusoff knew a day in advance that he'd be in goal for San Jose. That's all the time he needed.
Kiprusoff, getting his first start in 12 games, stopped 29 shots for his third career shutout as the Sharks beat Vancouver 3-0 on Saturday night to stop a four-game winless streak.
Kiprusoff, who also shut out Vancouver last March 9, improved to 3-2 in five career games against the Canucks. Vancouver goalie Peter Skudra is 0-3-1 in four games against the Sharks.
``It's always fun to play when you know it's going to be a tough game,'' Kiprusoff said. ``I'm usually told a day ahead of time when I'm going to start and that's enough time. The defence played a great game in front of me.''
Canucks coach Marc Crawford remains one victory away from tying Harry Neale's franchise record of 142.
``He saw all the pucks and when that happens, goaltenders have the best chance of stopping the puck,'' Vancouver's Matt Cooke said of Kiprusoff. ``With guys in the front of the net he can't come out and get his angles quite as well as he did tonight.''
Vincent Damphousse, Patrick Marleau and Niklas Sundstrom scored goals, and Jeff Fahey had two assists for his first career multipoint game.
``You can easily say tonight our penalty killing made the difference,'' Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. ``Kipper in goal didn't make any mistakes and that helped.''
The Canucks were 0-for-4 on the power play.
The Sharks last won on Dec. 30, while the Canucks, who beat San Jose in their two previous meetings, lost their second straight following a three-game winning streak.
``You could tell we weren't sharp,'' Crawford said. ``We had a lot of missed nets, bouncing pucks and those sorts of things. We really didn't generate the number of chances we wanted.''
Damphousse opened the scoring with his 12th goal on a power-play with 54 seconds remaining in the first period.
``It was a pretty even game for both teams,'' Skudra said. ``They got the first goal on a broken play.''
Marleau made it 2-0 with 3:44 left in the second, redirecting a shot by Fahey past Skudra. Sundstrom added an empty-net goal in the final minute for his 300th NHL point.
``We were solid all the way around and that's something to build on,'' Marleau said. ``Kip played great for us. He stopped a lot of shots and the defence got their stocks in there.''
Vancouver's Markus Naslund, the NHL leader with 31 goals, had his six-game scoring streak stopped.
``In my mind it could have gone either way,'' Naslund said. ``We didn't capitalize on our chances early and they did. Their goalie played well, and when you're down two goals going into the third it's tough to get it back.''
Cheers,
Aquaman