Fedorov's milestone crushes Canucks
Canadian Press
2/15/2004
VANCOUVER (CP) - Anaheim Mighty Ducks centre Sergei Fedorov registered two assists, including one that made him the first Russian-born player to score 1,000 points in the NHL, in a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
Fedorov picked up the historic point with an assist on Keith Carney's early second-period goal, which gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead.
The 34-year-old centre won a faceoff in the Vancouver zone and directed the puck back to the middle of the blue-line, where Carney teed up a long, high shot that got beat Canucks goaltender Johan Hedberg stickside.
Fedorov then set up Petr Schastlivy's winner with 7:10 left in the game for his 1,001st career point.
The smooth-skating centre carried the puck into the Canucks zone and tried to get a backhand pass across that Hedberg stopped. But Schastlivy was right in front of the goal to flip the puck over his outstretched pad.
J.S. Giguere made 34 saves - including a handful in the last minute when the Canucks pulled Hedberg for an extra attacker - for the Ducks (19-24-8-7), who have won three of their last four games.
Artem Chubarov scored for the Canucks, who have lost three straight games and have just one win in their past six contests (1-4-0-1).
Johan Hedberg made 31 saves for the Canucks. Dan Cloutier, who was fined $1,000 US by the NHL for hitting Atlanta's Ronald Petrovicky in the face with his blocker at the end of Friday's game, was scratched from the lineup with the flu.
Vancouver (31-18-7-3) continues to struggle on home ice. The Canucks are 5-10-4-0 at GM Place after starting the season unbeaten in 10 (9-0-1-0). In three games since the all-star break, Vancouver has scored just four goals.
Fedorov reached the milestone in his 965th game, recording 419 goals and 582 assists during that span, mostly with the Detroit Red Wings. He has 19 goals and 28 assists this season and is currently on a four-game point streak.
Vancouver outshot Anaheim 35-33. Both teams were scoreless in four chances with the man advantage.
After a scoreless first period, the Ducks came out and fired seven shots on Hedberg in the first 90 seconds of the second frame.
It was their eighth attempt at the 3:00 mark that gave Anaheim its lead and Fedorov a place in the history books.
Steve Rucchin had a chance to give his team a 2-0 lead when he found himself on a short-handed breakaway with just seconds to go before the intermission. Rucchin had the puck on his forehand and tried to pull it around Hedberg but the Canucks backstopper got the pad down to make the save.
Chubarov, who had gone 14 games without a goal, tied the game 6:54 into the third period. He picked up a loose puck at the side of the net, got it onto his forehand and lifted it past Giguere.
The goal sparked the Canucks, who forced Giguere to make a handful of great saves over the next few minutes, including one on Todd Bertuzzi in close.
Notes: Only four other Europeans - Jari Kurri, Jaromir Jagr, Peter Stastny and Mats Sundin - have surpassed 1,000 points ... Alex Auld was called from Manitoba to back up Hedberg in the game. At the same time, the Canucks sent down forward Ryan Kesler ... Trevor Linden, still one point shy of becoming the Vancouver Canucks all-time leading scorer, tied a club record on Saturday by playing in his 896th game in a Canucks uniform. Linden is tied with Stan Smyl at 673 points.
Cheers,
Aquaman