Naslund carries Canucks to OT win
Canadian Press
12/10/2003
VANCOUVER (CP) - Markus Naslund scored his fourth goal of the game 24 seconds into overtime to give the Vancouver Canucks a 4-3 win over the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
Naslund took a drop pass from Todd Bertuzzi on a 3-on-2 rush to beat Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with a low wrist shot.
The goal was the 15th of the season for Naslund, who sat out Vancouver's last game with a groin injury.
Earlier, with the Penguins down 3-2, Milan Kraft had scored his second goal with 6:19 left in the third period to force the extra session.
Kraft took advantage of a Canuck turnover in the neutral zone and poked the rebound of a high shot past Vancouver netminder Johan Hedberg.
Naslund had given the Canucks their first lead with his third goal of the game that brought a shower of hats after he beat Fleury on a backhand shot.
Drake Berehowsky also scored for the Penguins.
The win was the first in four home games (1-2-1-0) for the Canucks, who had been unbeaten in their previous 10 starts at GM Place this season.
The punchless Penguins, with the worst record in the NHL, lost their fourth straight game - fourth in a row to Vancouver - and have won only once in their last eight outings (1-5-1-1).
Fleury made 33 saves in his final start before reporting to the Canadian junior team's training camp in Kitchener, Ont.
Naslund, who has two four-goal games in his career, scored twice in the middle frame to give the Canucks a 2-2 tie entering the third period.
He tied the game 1-1 early in the second when he beat Fleury with a high backhand as he went to his knees in front of the Pittsburgh net.
Berehowsky, a former Canuck, restored the Penguin lead five minutes later on their second power play with a screened point shot - Pittsburgh's first shot of the period.
However, Vancouver's moribund power play came to life when Naslund got his second goal by sliding Todd Bertuzzi's centring pass along the ice into the far corner of the net.
Vancouver entered the game converting only three of their last 40 power-play opportunities but it was the Penguins who struck first with the man advantage.
Kraft tipped the rebound of a point shot by Berehowsky past Johan Hedberg, a surprise starter in the Vancouver goal. It was the sixth consecutive home game in which the Canucks gave up the first goal.
Hedberg got his first back-to-back start as a Canuck when Dan Cloutier pulled a groin muscle at the morning skate.
Playing against his former team, Hedberg was backed up by Chris Levesque, 23, of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. The native of Port Coquitlam, B.C., was signed to a one-day amateur contract when the Canucks couldn't get a backup from the minors to Vancouver in time.
There were some anxious moments for the Canucks near the end of the first period when Hedberg was shaken up after leaving his net to check Konstantin Koltsov in a race for a loose puck.
They collided near the Vancouver blue-line and it was several minutes before Hedberg was able to continue.
Notes: Penguin veterans Marc Bergevin and Kelly Buchburger led a players-only meeting after Monday's practice. ... Pens' winger Ramzi Abid is out indefinitely after an examination revealed he tore the anterior cruciate ligament, meniscus and cartilage in his right knee Saturday in Edmonton. ... the game was only Pittsburgh's third visit here in five years.
Cheers,
Aquaman