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  Saturday, Oct. 14 10:00pm ET
Potvin reverses fortune vs. Sabres
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Felix Potvin found the perfect way to silence his critics.

Potvin stopped 27 shots to earn a shutout and his first win in four starts this year as the Vancouver Canucks blanked the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 Saturday night.

Dominik Hasek
Dominik Hasek makes one of his 28 saves on a breakaway by Vancouver's Markus Naslund, but the Sabres were shut out.

"I'll definitely sleep better tonight," Potvin said. "I was just happy with the win. When we were up 4-0 I thought it was great. The shutout was just a bonus."

Potvin entered the game with a 5.45 goals-against average and 0.791 save percentage -- both last among goalies who have played more than one game. He was openly criticized by media and regularly booed by Vancouver fans after giving up goals on the first three shots in his last start against Colorado on Thursday.

"I wish I could pinpoint something to change the output," Potvin said. "When I came to the rink I was pretty relaxed and having fun. You don't want to be too tense out there."

Potvin made his best saves of the night with Vancouver on the power play, stopping Doug Gilmour on a breakaway and robbing Stu Barnes with his right skate on a 2-on-1 break.

"Unfortunately we ran into a hot goaltender," said Gilmour, who played with Potvin in Toronto. "I've seen that before. He's a competitor and it's awesome to see that, just not against us. I know he took some heat the other night and he's going to bounce back for this hockey club."

The shutout was highlighted by Potvin's opposition for Buffalo. Dominik Hasek made his second straight start for the Sabres after missing most of their first two games with a knee injury sustained 12 minutes into the first game. Hasek stopped 28 of 32 shots, but lost for the second straight night.

Brendan Morrison opened the scoring 3:48 into the game when he banged home a rebound for his first goal of the season after Steve Kariya elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 break.

Trent Klatt made it 2-0 on a breakaway 11:07 into the second, and Vancouver (3-2-0) sealed the win with a pair of third-period power-play goals from Adrian Aucoin and Andrew Cassels. The Canucks finished 2-for-8 with the man advantage and are 4-for-31 after five games.

Aucoin made it 3-0 midway through the final period with a perfect point shot that found its way through traffic, over the right shoulder of Hasek and into the top corner. Cassels then beat Hasek with a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle at 14:08.

"We have actually been moving the puck around on the power play, we just haven't been getting the scoring chances," Aucoin said. "The number one thing was just getting the puck on net. It was definitely a major change for us."

After opening the season with two straight wins at home, the Sabres (2-2-0) have dropped back-to-back road games.

Buffalo's power play, which opened the season at home with four goals in 11 chances, is 0-for-12 in two road games.

"That was one of the biggest parts of the game," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "We could have put Potvin in a little hole early but we didn't execute on the power play. We've missed the net way too many times on the power play in the last two games."

Game notes
Hasek jumped onto a pileup beside his net and started throwing punches at Vancouver forward Matt Cooke, taking exception to being taken hard into the goalpost by defenseman Curtis Brown. Brown received a minor penalty for holding, while Cooke and Hasek got two-minute penalties for roughing. ... Vancouver entered the game with the league's worst penalty-killing percentage (76) after allowing six goals in 25 short-handed situations. That same unit has already scored three short-handed goals, most in the NHL. ... Vancouver defenseman Jason Strudwick, making just his second start of the season, was one of the Canucks' alternate captains. Strudwick was a healthy scratch in the previous three games. ... Canucks defenseman Ed Jovanovski had three assists, giving him five points this season.
 


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