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 Left winger David Booth scored two unassisted goals, goaltender
Eddie Lack made 29 saves and the Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2
on Wednesday night.
Right winger Zack Kassian, left winger Daniel Sedin and center Ryan
Kesler also scored for the Canucks, who won for the third straight
time and fourth time in five games, earning an important two points
as they keep their faint playoff hopes alive.
"It's huge, we're in a do-or-die position," Burrows said. "If we
would have lost this game we probably would have been out of the
race."
Vancouver began the night in 10th place in the Western Conference,
three points behind Dallas and six behind eighth-place Phoenix. The
Stars and Coyotes were idle Wednesday. The Canucks play Thursday at
Colorado to complete a two-game trip before beginning a five-game
homestand.
"Tomorrow night's another big game, but what happens if you win it,"
said coach John Tortorella. "We're sniffing. Each game goes by you
find a way to get some points. We just want to put some pressure on
the people we're trying to catch and see how other teams react as we
go about our business."
Center Charlie Coyle and right winger Nino Niederreiter scored for
Minnesota, 3-4-4 in its last 11 games.
The Wild, who entered the game in seventh in the conference
standings, three points up on Phoenix and six on Dallas, were
looking to establish some momentum before beginning a four-game road
trip Thursday in St. Louis, a team they lost to eight straight
times. The trip also takes Minnesota to Phoenix, Los Angeles and
Chicago.
"We have to shift our mindset to tomorrow. As we know, it's going to
be a tough game and we can't lose two in a row right now," said left
winger Zach Parise.
Tied 1-1, Booth got his second goal midway through the middle
period, whistling a wrist shot over Darcy Kuemper's glove after
defenseman Jared Spurgeon nearly whiffed on a cross-ice pass,
leaving the puck alone in the high slot.
Booth went 32 games without a goal before scoring in Sunday's win
over Buffalo.
"He's been kicked around quite a bit out there in Vancouver, but I
tell you he has worked hard for a number of months here. Hopefully,
that's paying off and he's getting rewarded here," Tortorella said.
"He got a couple big goals, he's been getting pucks on net, so good
for him. It couldn't come at a better time."
Minnesota nearly tied it three minutes later on the power play, but
defenseman Alex Edler raced in to swat away a shot by right winger
Jason Pominville that Lack got some of the puck, but was still
trickling toward the net.
"Goalie's friend," Lack said with a big smile.
[to top of second column] |
Kassian, who had four assists Sunday, scored with less than a minute
to go in the period. Off the faceoff he outmuscled Coyle to the
puck, spun and beat Kuemper through traffic. Kuemper made 10 saves
before being replaced by Ilya Bryzgalov to start the third period.
Sedin tipped in defenseman Dan Hamhuis' slap shot for a 4-1 lead
midway through the third period, and Kesler scored off scramble 49
seconds later.
Niederreiter scored 24 seconds later to make it 5-2.
"It's tough to find a reason right now why we didn't score. But
obviously we've got to work on that," said Wild captain Mikko Koivu.
"But you can't allow five goals either, we got to be better in front
of our goalie and try to make it harder for them to score goals."
Booth gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead with 4:21 left in the first
period.
Eight seconds after Lack stopped left winger Matt Moulson's shot
with a quick glove save, Booth used defenseman Jonathan Blum as a
screen and his shot beat Kuemper on the stick side, eliciting quite
a few boos from the home crowd.
Less than two minutes later, the fans were on their feet as Coyle
took advantage of an odd carom off the side glass and beat Lack with
a wrist shot to tie the game.
NOTES: Vancouver played its first game without C Henrik Sedin, who
is expected to miss two weeks with a lower-body injury. Sedin has 11
goals and 47 assists in 74 games all-time against the Wild, the most
assists and games played by a player against Minnesota and
second-most points. ... With Sedin out, C Ryan Kesler centered the
Canucks' top line between Daniel Sedin and Nicklas Jensen. ... Wild
D Keith Ballard, who played 148 games with Vancouver during the past
three seasons, missed his fifth straight game with a lower-body
injury. ... Burrows returned after missing Sunday's game with a left
hand injury. He went to the dressing room briefly in the second
period after an open-ice hit from Niederreiter. ... The Wild
announced that two players underwent successful surgery Tuesday.
Both G Niklas Backstrom (core muscle) and F Jason Zucker (tendon in
his left quadriceps) are expected to be ready for next season.
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