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Linden's offensive outburst sparks Canucks past Flames

Mar 31, 2008 - 6:33 AM By Daniel Fung PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- The Vancouver Canucks know they are in a battle for their postseason lives. On Sunday, they play liked it.

Trevor Linden scored two goals, including the go-ahead tally in the second period, for the Canucks in a 6-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.

The win moved Vancouver (39-30-10) into sole possession of eighth place in the Western Conference, one point ahead of Nashville (39-31-9), which lost earlier in the day to Detroit.

"It's a huge game for us, obviously," Linden said. "It's just nice to have it go our way a little bit. We had a tough week last week, it's nice to win the way we did."

Defenseman Sami Salo and Markus Naslund also scored for the Canucks, who also closed within two points of the Flames (40-28-10) for seventh place.

"It's not just Nashville right now; there are a lot of teams in this (race)," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "Edmonton is there, Nashville is there, Calgary is there, Colorado is there. Everybody's right in the mix here so you've got to play and everybody is going to play hard. It's interesting, to say the least."

With the game tied at 2-2 after one period, Linden gave Vancouver its first lead of the contest just 1:53 into the second period.

With the Canucks' fourth line controlling the play deep in the Calgary zone, former Flame Byron Ritchie sent a centering pass to a wide-open Linden in front of Calgary netminder Miikka Kiprusoff. The long-time Canuck made a move to put the puck on his forehand before chipping it over a fallen Kiprusoff for his sixth goal of the season.

Less than five minutes later, Linden struck again for his first two-goal game since February 25, 2003.

At 6:49 of the second, Henrik Sedin dropped a pass to defenseman Mike Weaver, who fired a slap shot through traffic that deflected off a Flames player before landing right on the stick of Linden, who wasted little time firing the puck into the net just to the right of Kiprusoff.

"I thought (Washington Capitals left wing and NHL leading scorer Alexander) Ovechkin was out there tonight for us," joked teammate Alex Burrows in reference to Linden's effort. "He was just flying and playing well, playing with confidence and that says a lot about Trevor.

"I think he's the kind of player that really brings a lot to the table and the fans really get a lot of energy out of it when he scores a goal. (Those were) two great goals for us and that's why we call him 'Mr. Clutch.'"

Linden's second goal signaled the end of the night for Kiprusoff, who was pulled in favor of Curtis Joseph after making just nine saves on 13 shots.

"You score goals and some are bigger than others," Linden said. "That gave us a two-goal lead, which was key, so that was good and it's just nice to get a little luck around the net."

"He (Kiprusoff) was left defenseless," Flames coach Mike Keenan said. "I don't know if (anyone) noticed, but they ran him over in the first period when they scored the goal and knocked his face mask off. If they (the officials) are not going to protect him, then I'm going to get him out of there at that point of the game when it's pretty much decided."

Matt Pettinger added to the Flames' misery at 12:16 of the second to make it 5-2. And just 52 seconds into the third, Brad Isbister capped Vancouver's run of four unanswered goals with his sixth of the campaign.

All the offensive support was more than enough for Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo, who turned away 27 shots for his 35th win of the season.

David Moss and Matthew Lombardi each scored for Calgary.