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Shannon's controversial shootout goal lifts Canucks

Feb 11, 2008 - 7:18 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- It cost him a punch to the back of the head, but Ryan Shannon was the hero for the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.

Shannon scored the lone goal in the shootout and All-Star Roberto Luongo made 16 saves before stopping all three shooters in the bonus format as the Canucks skated to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

"I thought it was a really entertaining game for our fans," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "Our players played extremely well. They challenged themselves to respond after last night's game and they did. We outchanced that team 21 to 8 tonight. For some reason it went to overtime, and we found a way to win."

Alex Burrows and captain Markus Naslund each tallied in regulation for Vancouver, which had lost five of its previous six contests.

"It was nice to come back," Naslund said. "I think we deserved the win. We played a strong game I thought. Unfortunately, we got some bad bounces. It's pretty typical when you see that puck go over (Luongo) like that, but we responded. We got the win and that's all that matters."

In the second round of the shootout, Shannon pulled off a spin move and slid into goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin as he put the puck into the open side of the net. Khabibulin immediately delivered a punch to the back of Shannon's head as the 24-year-old center skated back to the bench.

"When I came in, I kind of went out wide to see where (Khabibulin) lines up, see how far out he is," Shannon said. "And then when I saw him come with the poke check, I realized that the far side wasn't open so I had to come back and I just kind of lost my footing. I don't know if I landed on his stick or not, but I was just able to get the puck in the net. I wasn't expecting a hit coming, but again, I wasn't trying to embarrass anybody."

"I guess there's no such rule against it," Khabibulin said. "There's no rule, I guess he can do that but he's going to pay the price for that. Show me one goaltender who's going to be happy if he stays in the blue and somebody bumps him. I don't care if it's a penalty shot or not."

The referees upheld the goal and no immediate punishment was handed out to Khabibulin, who was impressive in turning aside 33 shots.

"To me, that's interference," Blackhawks coach Denis Savard said of the play. "Goalies shouldn't be able to get bumped. I mean, what's the difference if the guy goes right at the goalie and runs him right out - go straight at him. I don't think there's any difference there, so the league's got to look at that and try to fix that because it happened last year against us too with (Pierre-Marc) Bouchard in Minnesota.

"I'm not here to criticize anybody, but that's something they've got to look at for sure."

Luongo stopped rookies Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in the first two rounds of the bonus format and then made a sprawling pad save on Patrick Sharp in the third round.

Defenseman Cam Barker got a little lucky on his second goal of the season, which gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 edge with 4:05 left in the third period.

Barker's shot from the left point deflected off the stick of a Canucks' defender and went up into the air. Luongo could not locate the puck, which went behind him and into the goal.

"I think it went off the guy that was coming out to me," Barker said. "Nobody saw it. I thought it was going to drop in front of the net in the hash marks. Nobody really saw it and it went in."

"I thought it was in the netting," Luongo added. "I was looking at the netting. And then the whistle wasn't going, and I was just starting to back up and next thing you know, it lands perfectly across the line. It's just the way things have been going lately. But we battled still and didn't get discouraged after that goal."

Vancouver tied the contest at 2-2 with 78 ticks left in regulation when Naslund deflected in blue-liner Mattias Ohlund's shot from the left point.

The Swede became the first Vancouver player in team history to register at least 20 goals in nine consecutive seasons, surpassing the previous record of eight straight seasons that he had shared with Stan Smyl entering this season.

"We won the draw and got the puck up to the point, and you know the 'D' is going to shoot the puck," Naslund said of his goal. "The puck was bouncing and it hit the blade of my stick."

Toews, who returned to the lineup after missing the previous 16 games with a left knee sprain, created a scoring chance for the Blackhawks early in the second period that ended in disaster.

The 19-year-old Toews made a nice feed to Sharp, who one-timed a shot off the left goalpost behind Luongo.

The missed opportunity would prove costly as the rebound came to Henrik Sedin, who then sent a long outlet pass to Burrows for a breakaway. Burrows faked a shot and deked to his backhand, sliding the puck past Khabibulin at 1:43 to open the scoring.

"I got off the bench and saw that they hit the post," Burrows said. "I think Henrik caught the puck and I knew he was going to look up ice right away, so I kind of went behind their (defensemen) and he made a perfect pass to me and I was able to go on a breakaway. I went to my go-to move - a fake shot and a backhand. It worked and I was happy to get a goal."

Sharp, however, tied the contest at 1-1 at 5:44 of the third period after taking a pass from Toews and firing a wrist shot past Luongo.

"All in all, it's good to be back out there," Toews said. "I'm just looking forward to getting my legs back and making a bigger difference out there. Obviously I'm not satisfied with the way I played. I know it's not what I'm capable of."