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Chimera's overtime tally propels Blue Jackets past Canucks

Mar 1, 2008 - 7:17 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- Jason Chimera scored just 67 seconds into the overtime and All-Star Rick Nash added a goal and an assist as the Columbus Blue Jackets edged the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2, on Friday night.

Andrew Murray also tallied, defenseman Dick Tarnstrom collected two assists and Pascal Leclaire made 21 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have won three of their last four games.

Columbus (30-27-9) remained in 11th place in the Western Conference but moved within three points of the eighth and final playoff spot.

"It's huge," Nash said of the victory. "We're playing every game like a playoff game. We were desperate for points. We need to win if we want to make it to the postseason."

Chimera handed Vancouver its first overtime loss of the season when he redirected Nikolai Zherdev's centering pass past goaltender Roberto Luongo.

"Dick made a good pass coming out of the zone," Chimera said. "He made a drop pass to (Zherdev) coming out. I just went to net hard and (Zherdev) made a great pass to me in front of the net, and I just kind of redirected it home."

"It was a nice play by Zherdev, and the guy got a great tip-in," Luongo said. "The guy drove the net and made a nice play."

The Canucks carried a 2-0 advantage into the third period, but the Blue Jackets rallied for two quick goals to pull even.

Murray halved the deficit at 5:18 of the session, when he deflected Tarnstrom's shot from the right point over Luongo for his fifth goal of the season.

Nash tied the contest 70 seconds later, when an errant pass by Mason Raymond permitted him to race in on a breakaway. The 23-year-old former Maurice Richard Trophy winner deked to his backhand and lifted a shot over Luongo's left pad for his team-leading 34th tally.

"I looked up and he was out a bit far," Nash said. "(Luongo's) obviously one of the best goalies in the league, and it's tough to beat him on the breakaway. You don't see much of the net shooting, so I tried to get him to come across, and lucky enough, it worked."

"I thought the first goal was a bit fluky there on their part," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "But the second, we didn't make the high-percentage play at their line and paid for it, and paid the price in overtime."

Luongo turned aside 30 shots for Vancouver, which has not lost in regulation in its last eight contests (5-0-3). Six of those games have needed more than 60 minutes to be decided.

"The guys worked hard," Luongo said. "They tried to do the right thing out there. (Columbus) got a couple of bounces and they won the game. No big deal, we'll bounce back in the next one."

The Canucks opened the scoring with 7:22 left in the first period as Ryan Shannon joined an odd-man rush from the penalty box and took a pass from Trevor Linden in the left faceoff circle. Shannon then fired a wrist shot past Leclaire for his third of the campaign.

Blue-liner Sami Salo doubled the lead with 9:02 remaining in the second, launching a slap shot from the left point over the glove of Leclaire.

Vancouver also had two goals waved off in the contest.

The first came 6 1/2 minutes into the game, when the referees ruled that captain Markus Naslund had interfered with Leclaire as Daniel Sedin put the puck in the net. Henrik Sedin thought he had given the Canucks the lead just under nine minutes into the third, but his goal was erased because he knocked the puck into the net with a high stick.

"It's disappointing that the first one didn't count," Naslund said. "I thought it should have, but that's life."