Roberto Luongo recorded 30 saves to help the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-0 shutout of the St Louis Blues on Thursday.
Alexandre Burrows added his 23rd goal of the year as the home team earned their fourth straight win and moved into fourth place in the Western Conference.
Luongo picked up his sixth shutout of the season, underlining his current splendid form and dispelling recent criticism of his puck handling.
PHOTO: AP
“He played a really strong game and kept us in,” Canucks coach Alain Vigneault told reporters. “In the second half we picked up our play a little, we were skating more with the puck and moving it around and we found a way to get the job done. “
Vancouver (38-23-9) are 16-3-1 since the start of last month, including a franchise-best 11 straight home wins, moving from the edge of the conference playoff race to the middle of the pack.
The Blues (32-30-9) missed an opportunity to move closer to playoff position and dropped their second straight game.
St Louis had been playing well before its latest bump in the road and will look to rebound in the final 11 games of the season.
“They’ve been playing well for the last little while,” Luongo said. “They’re fighting for a spot like a bunch of other teams we’ve been playing lately, just desperate and fighting for their playoff lives. We just have to make sure we do more of what we’ve been doing at home.”
Chris Mason had 18 saves for St Louis but surrendered third-period goals to Mason Raymond and Henrik Sedin.
Raymond had a tip-in at 8:33 in the final period, while Sedin added a wrister two minutes later.
Blues forward Keith Tkachuk was injured in the third period when he was hit in the wrist by a slap shot.
CAPITALS 5, LIGHTNING 2
At Tampa Bay, Florida, Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 50th goal to become Washington’s first three-time 50-goal scorer in Washington’s win over Tampa Bay.
Ovechkin, who also had two assists, opened the scoring at 7:43 of the first period.
The 23-year-old Russian star took a pass from Nicklas Backstrom and carried the puck up the right side. Ovechkin deked Tampa Bay’s Matt Pettinger out of position and snapped a wrist shot from the right circle past rookie goalie Mike McKenna.
Ovechkin has 213 goals in 315 career regular-season games. He had 52 goals as a rookie in 2005-2006, 46 in 2006-2007 and 65 last season.
Defenseman Mike Green scored his 26th and 27th goals, the most among NHL defenseman, and Michael Nylander and Matt Bradley added goals in Washington’s ninth straight victory over Tampa Bay. Steven Stamkos and Martin St Louis scored for the Lightning.
KINGS 3, BRUINS 2, OT
At Boston, Dustin Brown scored with 34 seconds left in overtime for Los Angeles after rookie defenseman Drew Doughty tied it for Boston with 1:36 remaining in regulation.
Brown converted a rebound of Sean O’Donnell’s shot for his 24th goal, capping a comeback from a 2-0 deficit midway through the third period. Michal Handzus scored on a power play for Los Angeles with 10:10 left in the third.
SHARKS 3, PREDATORS 2, SO
At San Jose, California, Jonathan Cheechoo scored the winning shootout goal with a deft backhand and Evgeni Nabokov made 25 saves as San Jose edged Nashville.
Rob Blake and Milan Michalek scored early goals for the Sharks, who moved one point behind NHL-leading Detroit with just their fourth victory in 10 games.
Joel Ward and Vernon Fiddler scored first-period goals for the Predators, who finished a key four-game West Coast trip with six points.
SENATORS 5, CANADIENS 4
At Ottawa, Jason Spezza scored goals 52 seconds apart late in the first period while Daniel Alfredsson added a goal and an assist as Ottawa beat Montreal.
Nick Foligno and Jarkko Ruutu also scored for Ottawa, which has won three in a row and seven of eight. Brian Elliott stopped 28 shots and set an Ottawa rookie record with his seventh straight victory.
Guillaume Latendresse had two goals and Alex Tanguay and Tom Kostopoulos also scored for Montreal. The Canadiens have lost four in a row since general manager Bob Gainey took over as coach after firing Guy Carbonneau.
In other games it was:
• Ducks 3, Coyotes 2, SO
• Panthers 3, Maple Leafs 1
• Oilers 8, Avalanche 1
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