Dallas Stars at Vancouver Canucks


VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Corey Hirsch made 36 saves for his first shutout of the season and Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund scored to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 2-0 victory over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.

Hirsch, who had allowed 13 goals in his previous three games, stopped 14 shots in the first period, 12 in the second and 10 in the third for his second career shutout.

It was the Canucks' second shutout in three games. Mike Fountain blanked New Jersey Thursday in his NHL debut.

Hirsch was asked what he liked best about the game.

"The fact that we weren't giving them a lot of chances, especially point-blank opportunities," he said. "We kept them to the outside and it just plays off a goalie's game. If you're giving their team a lot of opportunities to score, it wears on your confidence, so tonight the guys came through for me."

Hirsch's best save came with 2:30 left in the second period. Jamie Langenbrunner came in on a partial breakaway, moving left to right, and tried to go high. But Hirsch fell backwards and got the shaft of his stick on the puck to deflect it away.

"It looked really good but that only happens when you screw up, trying to cover your own tracks," Hirsch said on his save on Langenbrunner. "But it's fun when you make saves like that, sometimes you get lucky. It just hit my stick, I guess it was my night."

Dallas had 11 shots on four power plays in the first period, but could not beat Hirsch.

"I thought we played well, I thought we played well enough to win," Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said. "If the second period could've been another five minutes longer, we might've won. We had an awful lot of chances, especially in the last six minutes of the second period, but couldn't finish one. They were able to take the game deeper in the third and then start defending and put pressure on us."

The Canucks have alternated wins and losses in their last seven games and have dealt the Stars two of their six losses this season. Vancouver is just 2-6-2 in its last 10 home games against Dallas.

"It was a good recovery from the Montreal game (a 6-1 loss on Saturday)," Canucks coach Tom Renney said. "The guys I thought were intent on making amends, they had the frame of mind that we need to win. I thought some of our execution was a little bit lax. I don't like the shot total at all. The biggest concern is the power play. It didn't look good at all, it was disjointed. We had different people working there tonight, but we need better execution."

Moog made 21 saves in a losing cause.

"We didn't get a whole lot of good opportunities, we didn't get to shoot from where we wanted," Moog said. "He (Hirsch) handled all the ones from the perimeter, made a couple of good plays on bounces around the net. He played well."

Linden's fourth goal of the season and first since Nov. 2 staked the Canucks to a 1-0 lead with 5:24 left in the opening period. Dallas goaltender Andy Moog made a skate save on Pavel Bure's shot from the left faceoff circle, but the rebound caromed right to Linden, who moved in alone and deked to his backhand before lifting the puck over the goaltender.

Naslund added an insurance goal, his seventh, with 4:56 to go in the third period. Hirsch passed the puck up to Jyrki Lumme at the blue line and the Canucks broke into the Dallas zone 3-on-2. Naslund skated down the right side and took a shot from the circle that Moog stopped, but with his momentum carrying him past the net, Naslund was able to poke the puck by Moog.

"I didn't even know I had one," Hirsch said of his first assist. "I was just standing there looking at the clock and I heard my name. I'm all over the scoresheet tonight."

Moog felt referee Richard Trottier had blown the whistle before Naslund's goal.

"He blew the whistle, then he came skating along, saw that it was in and indicated a goal, it was his mistake, he shouldn't have blown the whistle," Moog said. "Don't make us pay for your mistake. It was a goal, he banged it in, it squeezed in between the post and my pad. The puck went in, but after the whistle. We had to pay for his mistake tonight."

Vancouver was limited to just two shots on its four power-play opportunities.

Jon's 3 stars:

1. Corey Hirsch
2. Mike Modano
3. Pavel Bure



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