|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Bob Essensa stared down one
of the league's top scorers with the game on the line, and won.
With his team up 4-3 and seven minutes to play, Essensa squeezed
the pads just enough to stop Joe Sakic on a breakaway and preserve
a win his teammates quickly labeled the biggest of the season. The
36-year-old goaltender finished with 26 saves, including 14 in the
third period, and the Canucks got goals from five players to beat
the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Thursday night.
|  | | After controlling most of the game, Jon Klemm, right, and the Avalanche collapsed in the third. |
"I didn't expect him to go 5-hole," Essensa said. "Joe's got
such a good shot that he's more of a top-shelf type of guy. There's
not going to be too many 1-on-1 confrontations with him where you
stop him."
Essensa also came up with big glove saves on Chris Drury and
Ray Bourque midway through the final period to improve to
14-5-1.
"He didn't have to do much in the second, but we had a couple
of breakaways and some good opportunities in the third and he came
up big, Bourque said.
Colorado had its eight-game win streak snapped and failed to
record at least one point for the first time since Dec. 26, a
stretch of 17 games.
"These guys are pretty good on capitalizing on their
opportunities, so it's nice to get the win," Essensa said.
Milan Hejduk's 30th goal, on a 5-on-3 power play, gave Colorado
a 3-2 lead 7:43 into the third period. But Vancouver answered with
two goals just 1:10 apart.
Jarkko Ruutu tied it and rookie Daniel Sedin gave the Canucks
their first lead of the game. Sedin's wraparound attempt bounced
off Bourque in the crease and in between the legs of goalie Patrick
Roy.
"They deserved that game," said Roy, who finished with 36
saves. "They played consistently all night, they created a lot of
chances, and in the third it paid off for them."
Brendan Morrison and Harold Druken also scored as Vancouver came
from behind three times to win for the fourth time in five games.
"We re tough to beat when we get everybody chipping in,"
Canucks captain Markus Naslund said. "They had a little bit of a
momentum break when they scored the 5-on-3 goal, but we bounced
back right away."
Peter Schaefer sealed the win with an empty net goal.
Colorado led 2-0 after 20 minutes on goals by Ville Nieminen and
Stephane Yelle, but the Canucks took control of the second period,
outshooting the Avalanche 18-5.
Morrison scored his first goal in 15 games to make it 2-1.
Vancouver had several excellent chances to tie the game, but couldn't put the puck past Roy.
"Patrick kept us in it and it was 2-1 after two periods, so we
were in good shape. But we gave up too much in our own end and a
couple of mistakes cost us," said Bourque.
Druken finally beat Roy four minutes into the third period with
his fourth goal in the last five games. Druken, sent in on a
partial breakaway by Matt Cooke, fought off a diving Martin Skoula
and roofed a back-hander over Roy's glove.
"We got outplayed, we got outworked and we didn't give
ourselves a chance to win the hockey game," said Avalanche coach
Bob Hartley after his team lost for the first time in 11 games.
"They faced adversity early in the game and they fought back very
well."
Game notes
Colorado rookie Nieminen has a goal in three straight
games since being recalled from the minors. ... Vancouver forward
Denis Pederson played for the first time since breaking his right
hand in a Dec. 23 fight with Colorado defenseman Greg deVries. ...
Colorado completed its season series against Vancouver with a 3-2
record, including one win in overtime. ... The crowd of 18,422 was
Vancouver's eighth sellout of the season, five more than the team
had all of last year.
|
|
ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Colorado Clubhouse
Vancouver Clubhouse
RECAPS
Montreal 3
Boston 0
Philadelphia 2
NY Islanders 0
Washington 5
Toronto 4
Carolina 3
Atlanta 1
Tampa Bay 4
Buffalo 2
Columbus 2
St. Louis 2
Calgary 5
Chicago 3
Anaheim 4
Phoenix 2
Dallas 4
San Jose 2
Vancouver 5
Colorado 3
Nashville 6
Los Angeles 4
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Daniel Sedin's shot goes in off Ray Bourque's skate for the go-ahead goal.
avi: 587 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
|
