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Boucher, Lehtinen make Canucks pay for late penalties

Feb 26, 2007 - 2:26 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- The Vancouver Canucks saw a pair of winning streaks come to an end thanks to undisciplined play down the stretch.

Defenseman Philippe Boucher scored a power-play goal with 29 seconds left in the third period and Jere Lehtinen tallied with the man advantage at 4:17 of overtime, giving the Dallas Stars a 2-1 triumph over the Canucks.

Entering with five straight road wins and six in a row overall, Vancouver was clinging to a 1-0 lead late in the third thanks to the strong play of Roberto Luongo. But Jan Bulis was called for goalie interference with 2:51 remaining and defenseman Sami Salo received a delay-of-game penalty 61 seconds later, giving Dallas a two-man advantage.

"(Goaltender Marty Turco) came out to make a poke-check and he was backing into me," Bulis said. "I dropped my stick so I wouldn't trip him or something, but he dove and fell down, so it was a penalty."

The Canucks managed to successfully kill Bulis' penalty but were not as fortunate regarding Salo's infraction. With Turco pulled for an extra attacker, Boucher received a pass from the right side of the net by Mike Ribeiro and fired a shot from the slot past Luongo to forge a 1-1 tie.

"We had a couple chances, but you want to bury them because you won't get too many," Boucher said. "It took a lot of traffic to beat (Luongo)."

"His biggest strength is finding holes and shooting pucks," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "He's got a heavy shot and a quick release."

The goal was Boucher's 17th of the season, eclipsing his previous career high set last campaign.

Vancouver also was unable to stay out of the box in overtime as blue-liner Lukas Krajicek was whistled for tripping at 2:23. With just six seconds remaining on the penalty, Lehtinen unleashed a one-timer from the left faceoff circle that beat Luongo to the glove side, giving him his fourth goal in as many games and the Stars an exciting comeback victory.

"I got a pretty good look and was able to put it away," Lehtinen said. "That was a great pass. I thought, 'I need to shoot right now.' I knew there wasn't too much time.

"We made two great plays there late to tie and then to win it. This feels great to get the win."

Tippett understands the Stars were fortunate to get the late power-play chances.

"We needed a break at the end, and we got it," he said. "Our guys found a way to sort it out. That's the break we needed to get back in the game."

Turco made 17 saves and Mike Modano added an assist for Dallas, which has won six of its last eight.

"Our goalie was just as good as theirs today, and that gives your players a lot of confidence," said Tippett, whose team improved to 8-1-1 in its last 10 home games. "We played a lot of quality opponents over this stretch of games and we want to be put with those quality teams, and I felt we earned it."

Taylor Pyatt scored the lone goal and Luongo turned aside 34 shots for the Canucks, who moved two points ahead of the second-place Minnesota Wild (75) in the Northwest Division.

"We were in control, then the penalties," Luongo said. "You can only go to the well so many times. The penalty kill got tired and I got tired."

"The two men down (situation) was too much to handle," Vancouver center Trevor Linden added. "We took too many penalties in the end."

After a scoreless first period, Pyatt gave Vancouver the lead at 10:17 of the second with his 17th goal, a wrist shot from the slot that found the top left corner of the net.