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Morrison carries Canucks past Blackhawks

Dec 6, 2007 - 5:27 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Brendan Morrison helped the Vancouver Canucks maintain their dominance over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Morrison snapped a tie just 3:11 into the third period and the Canucks made the goal stand, holding on for a 3-2 triumph over the Blackhawks on Wednesday.

Vancouver has defeated Chicago nine times in their last 11 meetings.

In the teams' last matchup, Morrison scored the game-winner in the Canucks' 2-0 victory over the Blackhawks on November 25.

"All of the games are tight and have been hard-fought," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "Both teams have great goaltending. Tonight, we took advantage of a couple of their mistakes."

On Wednesday, Morrison blasted a shot from just outside the right faceoff circle that beat goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, sailing just inside the right goalpost for his eighth goal of the season.

"Our team won the game, and that's the most important thing," Morrison said. "It doesn't matter who gets the game-winning goals."

Defenseman Mattias Ohlund opened the scoring 7:24 into the first period. Skating down the slot, Ohlund sent a backhander over the glove of Khabibulin for his fifth tally.

Martin Lapointe leveled the game at 1-1 with his first goal of the campaign. Lapointe accepted a feed from defenseman Duncan Keith and fired a low wrist shot that eluded netminder Roberto Luongo with 5:17 remaining in the first.

"The key to my goal was getting traffic in front of Luongo," Lapointe said. "It was nice to get my first goal out of the way, but I am more worried about getting two points."

Byron Ritchie gave Vancouver a 2-1 lead with 38 seconds to go in the session, tucking a backhander just inside the left post after Chicago turned over the puck in its own zone.

Martin Havlat forged another tie just over nine minutes into the second period. With Chicago on the power play, Havlat wristed a shot past Luongo for his third goal in four games.

"It was a great goal for us," Havlat said. "Luongo didn't see the puck. We had people in front of him."

The Blackhawks were unable to muster anything else against Luongo, who finished with 25 saves.

"It was an ugly win, but a good road win," Luongo said. "We took too many penalties. At least it didn't cost us."

Khabibulin turned aside 18 shots for Chicago, which has lost four of its last six games.