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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 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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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Buffalo Clubhouse
Vancouver Clubhouse
RECAPS
Montreal 5
Chicago 4
Calgary 2
NY Islanders 0
Ottawa 4
Toronto 0
New Jersey 4
Anaheim 2
Pittsburgh 8
NY Rangers 6
Dallas 3
Washington 0
Nashville 2
Carolina 1
Colorado 3
Columbus 1
Phoenix 6
Philadelphia 3
Vancouver 4
Buffalo 0
San Jose 5
Boston 2
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