The Chicago Blackhawks moved into a share of first place in the Western Conference with a 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
Chicago cruised to a 5-1 lead by the end of the first period to chase Vancouver’s starting goalie Roberto Luongo from the game. Luongo, who won an Olympic gold medal with Canada last Sunday, was replaced by Andrew Raycroft.
“It’s definitely not the way we wanted to start this game,” Canucks coach Alain Vigneault told reporters.
PHOTO: AFP
“We wanted to play a disciplined game like we did in Detroit and that wasn’t the case tonight. Without a doubt, in the first period they were the much better team. They got Grade A chances and were able to bury those chances,” he said.
Animosity between the teams was evident early on, with 12 minutes in penalties assessed just 37 seconds into the opening period. Overall there were 50 minutes in penalties, 28 going to the Canucks.
“We play these guys a lot,” Duncan Keith told reporters. “Every time we play these guys it’s a lot of emotion and intensity. It was no different tonight.”
Andrew Ladd, Keith, Troy Brouwer, Kris Versteeg and Jordan Hendry scored for the Hawks in the first period, with Ryan Kesler finding the net for the Canucks.
“We knew we had to have a big effort against Vancouver, one of our biggest rivals this season and last season too,” Hendry told reporters. “It was huge for us to get a win against them. They’ve had our number the last few games, so it was nice to get the effort.”
Vancouver’s Alex Burrows and Chicago’s Marian Hossa traded goals in the second period, before Mikael Samuelsson scored for Vancouver in the third.
It was the 10th consecutive game on the road for the Canucks. The team has not played in Vancouver since Jan. 30 as their home ice was used for the Winter Olympics.
Vancouver stay in top spot in the Northwest Division despite the loss, two points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche.
FLAMES 5, DEVILS 3
In Calgary, Alberta, Daymond Langkow, Curtis Glencross and Eric Nystrom scored second-period goals to push Calgary past New Jersey.
Miikka Kiprusoff made 22 saves, while Matt Stajan and David Moss netted in the third period for the Flames, who scored five straight goals after New Jersey’s Zach Parise opened the scoring in the first period.
Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk scored in the third for the Devils.
RED WINGS 5, PREDATORS 2
In Detroit, Darren Helm scored twice and Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and an assist for Detroit in the win over Nashville.
Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg also scored, while Jimmy Howard made 20 saves for the Red Wings.
The Predators goals came via J.P. Dumont and Joel Ward.
OILERS 2, WILD 1, SO
In Edmonton, Alberta, Mike Comrie scored in regulation and added the shootout winner to sink Minnesota and halt Edmonton’s losing streak at three games.
Comrie slipped a backhander through Niklas Backstrom’s pads in the sixth round of the tie-breaker and Jeff Deslauriers deflected Guillaume Latendresse’s shot over the net with his glove to end the game.
Latendresse scored in regulation for the Wild.
SABRES 3, FLYERS 2, OT
In Buffalo, New York, Tim Connolly scored in overtime to lift Buffalo over Philadelphia.
Adam Mair had a goal and assist, Thomas Vanek scored and Ryan Miller made 27 saves for Buffalo, who moved a point in front of Ottawa for the Northeast Division lead.
Simon Gagne and Mike Richards scored for the Philadelphia Flyers.
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