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Morrison's two goals help offset Luongo's struggles

Feb 19, 2007 - 6:54 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- In a game when the defense and All-Star goaltender Roberto Luongo was not up to par, the offense bailed out the streaking Vancouver Canucks.

Brendan Morrison scored two goals as the Canucks won their fourth straight game, 5-4, over the Colorado Avalanche.

Matt Cook had three points for Vancouver, which has won 22 of 36 one-goal games this season and has a two-point lead over Calgary for first place in the Northwest Division.

"Everyone talks about first place, first place," Morrison said. "And yeh, we want to end up there, but our focus has to be on our play. If we play the way we're capable of and the way we've been playing since Christmas then we have a good shot."

Vancouver, which starts a four-game losing streak at Anaheim on Tuesday, is 10-2-3 since January 13.

After Colorado left wing Andrew Brunette scored on a double-deflection to tie the game at 3-3 with 6:24 left in the second period, the Canucks took control with two early tallies in the final stanza.

Henrik Sedin scored an unassisted goal 1:31 into the third period when his shot from the right faceoff circle was stopped by defenseman Ken Klee, but his attempted backhanded clear went right to Sedin, who easily ripped the puck past netminder Jose Theodore for his eighth goal of the season.

Morrison added the eventual game-winner 2:20 later on the power play, when he took a cross-ice feed from the left boards from captain Markus Naslund and beat Theodore far post for a 5-3 edge.

The Avalanche halved the deficit 6:04 into the third period when Ian Laperriere got in front of defenseman Lukas Krajicek and took a pass in the left slot from Tyler Arnason and put the puck up and over Luongo. But Colorado could not get the equalizer.

"It was important to get the two points," Luongo said. "It wasn't the prettiest win as far as systems go, but we got some big goals tonight and sometimes you're gonna win high scoring games and sometimes you're going to win close ones."

"I thought we had our chances to win, but the last couple games we haven't found a way, Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said. "It's not that we're playing that bad but we have to learn to win these games, especially this time of year."

The All-Star goaltender who had allowed two goals or less in 10 of his last 13 games, Luongo won his second straight against Colorado after losing seven in a row.

"We're definitely relying on him big time, but we've got to cut down on the mistakes," Naslund said. "We've got to cut down on giving up so many shots and chances to be successful, especially in the post season."