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Salo, Luongo lead Canucks past Avalanche and into playoffs

Mar 28, 2007 - 6:47 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- With the playoffs right around the corner, defenseman Sami Salo made sure his Vancouver Canucks teammates would join the party.

Salo scored the decisive goal on the power play and set up another and goaltender Roberto Luongo posted his fifth shutout of the season as the Canucks blanked the Colorado Avalanche, 3-0.

Matt Cooke and Daniel Sedin added empty-net goals with less than a minute to play for Vancouver (46-23-7), which surpassed the Minnesota Wild (45-24-8) for first place in the Northwest Division and in the process clinched a playoff spot. The Wild were beaten at home by the Calgary Flames.

With a two-man advantage early in the final period, Salo received a pass from Henrik Sedin and blasted a shot from the slot just inside the blue line that went between the pads of netminder Jose Theodore to put the Canucks up, 1-0, at the 2:14 mark of the session.

"It was satisfying, not just scoring a goal, but trying to get us back into the playoffs," Salo said. "I got a pass from Henrik and we had a great screen at the front. I just decided to take a shot and it just happened to go in."

After the Avalanche pulled Theodore, Cooke tallied with 55 seconds left and Daniel Sedin added the final tally 22 ticks later for Vancouver, which will make its first playoff appearance since 2003-04.

Luongo stopped 12 shots in the first period, nine in the second and 13 in the third session for his 32nd career shutout.

"It was not an easy task to come in here," Luongo said. "The Avalanche are really desperate and to do it in their building is pretty satisfying."

"Luongo played well," Avalanche defenseman John-Michael Liles said. "He's one of the top goalies in the league and you can't expect to get a lot on him every night. We had some chances and he came up big at those times."

Theodore made 26 saves for Colorado(39-30-7), which fell seven points behind the Calgary Flames (41-25-10) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with six games remaining.

"It was a huge loss for us," Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said. "We couldn't find a way to tie it."