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Linden, Morrison give Canucks shootout win over Blackhawks

Feb 17, 2007 - 6:04 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Trevor Linden gave the Vancouver Canucks a good start in the shootout, and Brendan Morrison and Roberto Luongo made it a great finish.

Linden and Morrison scored shootout goals and Luongo turned aside both shots he faced to lead the Canucks to a 2-1 triumph over the Chicago Blackhawks.

The loss was the second straight shootout setback for the Blackhawks, who lost a 5-4 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday.

"It is a tough loss, but I want to look at the positive," Chicago coach Denis Savard said. "We got a point and did some things right. We played hard, but their goalie was the story tonight."

"The Blackhawks are a good team and made us work very hard tonight," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. "The story is that Roberto gave us a chance. People may want to critique how we played, (but) we won't complain about getting two points."

After Luongo denied Martin Havlat in the first round, Linden cashed in on his first shootout attempt this season against Patrick Lalime, beating the goaltender to the stick side to give Vancouver a 1-0 edge in the bonus format.

"I was sitting there with my mouth guard out expecting to watch the shootout, then all of sudden, I had to shoot," Linden said. "Sometimes I think it helps not to have too long to think about it. I just went out and tried to find a good angle to shoot from and made a good shot."

Havlat, who has points in 26 of his 36 games this season, is 1-for-4 in shootouts.

"In the shootout, I went the other way and (Luongo) stopped me again," Havlat said. "It was his game tonight."

Martin St. Pierre also failed to score on Luongo, setting the stage for Morrison to clinch the victory.

The veteran center did just that, beating Lalime to the stick side to seal the win and improve to 6-for-7 in shootout attempts this season.

"I have been using that move a lot with success and was going to do it, regardless of what Trevor did," Morrison said. "That is a fun position to be in, and I was just glad that I was able to convert and get us two points."

"Both of them (Linden and Morrison) sort of did the same thing and scored in the same spot," Lalime said. "But they were good shots."

Havlat had a golden opportunity to win the game in the final seconds of overtime. After shaking off a hook by Jan Bulis during a breakaway, the All-Star got off a shot against Luongo, who made a shoulder save as time expired.

"When I didn't score at the end, I was hoping for a penalty shot, but it wasn't called," Havlat said.

Patrick Sharp gave Chicago a 1-0 lead at 5:04 of the third period. After St. Pierre won a faceoff against Morrison to the left of Luongo, he unleashed a shot that was stopped.

The rebound went directly to Sharp, who snapped it over Luongo's glove for his career-high 10th goal of the season and third in as many games.

The advantage lasted less than six minutes, however, as Matt Cooke streaked down the left side and blasted a shot past Lalime at 10:27.

"That was a bad goal," Lalime said. "All I can say is that he beat me."

Cooke's tally was his first since a two-goal effort in a 3-2 victory over Edmonton on January 5.

It was the second time in as many games Cooke was involved in a critical goal, as the left wing assisted on Sami Salo's overtime winner against Minnesota on Thursday by feeding the defenseman during a 2-on-1 rush.

The Canucks improved to 6-2-1 in their last nine games overall and 9-1-1 in their last 11 on the road.

Chicago, which returned home from a 4-2-1 road trip, fell to 1-6-3 in its last 10 home games.

Entering with the league's top penalty-killing success rate at 88.9 percent, Vancouver extinguished all nine of Chicago's man-advantage opportunities.