Kidd, who stopped 16 shots in the first two periods and 15 in the third, improved to 12-14-4 following his ninth career shutout and first since Oct. 26. The Flames improved to 10-8-1 against divisional foes and won for the first time in three meetings with the Canucks this season.
"When you don't allow any goals, something must have been working," Kidd said. "The defense played extremely well. I thought penalty killing probably won the game for us. A couple of big kills early and throughout the second and third kept us in the game. When we had to do it, we killed penalties."
The Canucks fell to 4-3-1 in their last eight games and remained five points behind the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the division. Vancouver has been shut out twice in its last four games after being blanked two times in its first 46 contests.
"I think it was a pretty even game and both teams played hard," said Vancouver right winger Pavel Bure. "We just couldn't use our chances. You have to give them credit, too. They were working hard and they played well defensively. But still we had opportunities and just couldn't score."
After a scoreless first period, Gavey scored his fourth goal to give Calgary a 1-0 lead at 4:16 of the second period. Gavey took a pass from Robert Reichel at center ice, skated to the left faceoff circle and beat goaltender Kirk McLean low to the glove side.
Gavey pushed the Flames lead to 2-0 with 47 seconds left in the second. Steve Chiasson took a slap shot from the right point that McLean stopped. Gavey, streaking down the slot, one-timed the rebound over the left pad of the Vancouver goalie.
"My job basically is to just roam around in the middle and go to the net and pick up loose pucks on shots and that's what I did," Gavey said. "I turned around and the puck was there and I just put my head down and shot it and it went in the net."
Ed Ward's third goal of the season capped the scoring with 6:07 left in the third period. Ward picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and skated to the left point, where he put a weak slap shot past McLean's stick side.
Jon's 3 stars:
1. Aaron Gavey
2. Trevor Kidd
3. Yves Racine
Get your own Free Home Page