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Edler helps Canucks hold off Blues

Jan 14, 2008 - 3:55 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Rookie defenseman Alex Edler is making a habit of bailing out All-Star goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Edler scored the game-winning goal in the second round of the shootout and Luongo made up for a sub-par performance by stopping all three shots in the bonus format as the Vancouver Canucks posted a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.

Daniel Sedin had a goal and an assist for Vancouver, which snapped a two-game skid despite blowing a two-goal lead.

Brad Boyes completed St. Louis' rally by knotting the game at 3-3 with 8:45 remaining in the third period.

Edler, who scored the decisive goal in a 3-2 shootout over the New York Islanders on Tuesday, came up big again.

"I scored last time, so he told me I'm going to shoot again," Edler said.

"He's been very good in practice and he's got confidence. We're going to keep using him," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said.

After the first two shooters were denied, the 21-year-old beat Manny Legace between the pads for the lone goal of the bonus format.

"I had no idea what he was going to do," Legace said. "I shouldn't have tried to fake a poke check, and as soon as I did it, he shot it through my legs. He shot it and I didn't make the save."

Luongo, who stopped 19 shots, then sealed the win by stopping Andy McDonald's wrist shot with his left pad.

"I was waiting for him to challenge me on the last one," Luongo said. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but fortunately I got the leg out."

St. Louis trailed, 3-1, in the second, but Keith Tkachuk halved the deficit 4:45 into the session.

Boyes, who has four tallies in his last three games, leveled the game at 3-3 with a power-play goal.

Still, St. Louis lost its fourth shootout of the season. Boyes' winner against Nashville on November 17 is the only shootout goal scored by St. Louis in 11 tries.

"We have a shootout competition at the end of every practice because it is an extra point," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "We expect to score. If we get into a shootout in our next game, we expect to win."

Vancouver built a 3-1 lead as Daniel and All-Star Henrik Sedin scored first-period goals, and Markus Naslund scored 35 seconds into the second period.

St. Louis opened the scoring as defenseman Christian Backman notched his first tally of the season with 5:11 remaining in the first period.

After Daniel Sedin tied the game at 1-1, Henrik gave Vancouver the lead when he tapped in a loose puck after emerging from a scramble in front of the goal with 1:06 remaining in the period.

Legace stopped 22 shots for St. Louis, which has lost two straight.

"I think we were on our toes from the beginning - we came out strong," Daniel Sedin said. "Especially in the first period, we were going to the puck hard, and to the net hard, and things happened. When we forecheck well, we usually play well."