| |
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Felix Potvin performed the rare feat of outplaying Romen Turek.
Potvin made 37 saves, including seven in overtime, as the Vancouver Canucks battled back to tie the St. Louis Blues 2-2 Thursday night.
|  | | Tyson Nash, right, gets a hug from Marc Bergevin after scoring his fourth goal of the season. |
"He was fantastic," Blues defenseman Jeff Finley said. "In the overtime, we were all over him and he made some great saves."
Potvin was rewarded for his hard work when Markus Naslund and Alexander Mogilny scored third-period goals to give the Canucks the draw. It marked the first time this season that the Blues have blown a third-period lead.
The Blues entered the game as the NHL's only team with a perfect record (29-0-0) when leading after two periods. But Naslund beat Turek with a wrist shot off a faceoff at 3:18, and Mogilny tied it at 14:05 on a shot from just inside the blue line.
St. Louis, with an NHL-high 94 points, threw everything it had at Potvin after that, but he refused to yield.
"They came at us pretty hard, but we were able to stick to our game plan," Potvin said. "We showed a lot of character coming back against the best team in the league."
Al MacInnis recorded his 800th assist and Mike Eastwood had a goal and an assist, as the Blues improved to 13-0-3 against Canadian-based teams.
No United States team has ever gone undefeated against teams from Canada in one season. St. Louis has three games remaining against those clubs. Blues coach Joel Quenneville improved to 12-0-1 against Vancouver.
Quenneville was not that upset about squandering the lead.
"It was a hard-fought game," Quenneville said. "We positioned ourselves pretty well in the third and we still had our moments to win the game."
Vancouver also fought back from a two-goal, third-period deficit to tie Dallas 3-3 Wednesday night. Mogilny tied that game as well with a third-period tally.
"We really battled," Vancouver coach Marc Crawford said. "No one has come back on St. Louis all year."
Crawford added that Potvin was the difference.
"Felix was outstanding, particularly in overtime," he said.
MacInnis recorded his assist with 2:02 left in the second when Eastwood tipped in his slap shot from the point. Tyson Nash scored the other goal for the Blues, who have a five-game unbeaten streak. St. Louis is 15-2-2 in 19 games.
Turek had a shutout streak ended at 141:38 when Naslund scored. The Blues, who outshot the Canucks 39-19, have allowed two goals or less in 48 of their 67 games and are 37-3-8 in those contests.
Potvin made seven saves in overtime for the Canucks, 0-for-7 on the power play. St. Louis has killed 46 of 48 power plays in a 10-game span.
Nash got the Blues going when he scored his fourth goal at 13:45 of the second. Eastwood set up the play by keeping the puck in along the right boards. He got it to Nash at the top of the right circle and Nash put a wrist shot under the crossbar.
Eastwood made it 2-0 at 17:58 by directing MacInnis' blast from the right point past Potvin for his 17th goal.
| |
ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Vancouver Clubhouse
St. Louis Clubhouse
RECAPS
Ottawa 7
Pittsburgh 0
Philadelphia 3
Washington 1
Vancouver 2
St. Louis 2
Toronto 6
Calgary 2
Phoenix 5
NY Islanders 0
Los Angeles 3
NY Rangers 1
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Felix Potvin makes the nice glove save in OT to ensure a tie.
avi: 557 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
|
