October 12, 1996
Mike Sillinger's goal with 4:35 left in the second period broke
a tie and Martin Gelinas had two goals and an assist to lead the
Vancouver Canucks to a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues.
The score was tied, 3-3, when Vancouver's Esa Tikkanen took a
shot from the right faceoff circle. Goaltender Jon Casey,
making his first start of the season, kicked the rebound right
onto the stick of Sillinger, who put a one-timer in the net from
the left circle.
Pavel Bure added an insurance tally with 5:31 left in the third.
Trevor Linden carried the puck into the St. Louis zone and freed
Gelinas and Bure on a 2-on-none break. Gelinas slid the puck to
Bure, who whipped it into an open net for his second goal of the
season.
Linden had three assists for the Canucks, who snapped a
three-game winless streak against the Blues.
Rookie Konstantin Shafranov scored his first NHL goal and added
an assist for St. Louis, which completed a 2-1 western road
swing.
"We weren't sharp to start the game and I felt Jon Casey was the
only reason we were ahead after one," said Blues coach Mike
Keenan. "And we just seemed to run out of gas. We didn't
sustain anything or have any continuity in our play. We weren't
alert, probably due to three games in four nights, and a lot of
travel caught up with us. We made some mental errors and
created breakdowns and some lack of discipline, especially in
the early part of the game. It's probably due to fatigue."
The Blues held a 1-0 lead after the first period thanks to Jim
Campbell's power-play goal and Casey, who made 11 saves.
But Gelinas tied it at 4:47 of the second and Markus Naslund put
Vancouver ahead to stay just under four minutes later. Gelinas
scored again on the power play at 11:05 to make it 3-1.
"Things were really going well tonight for our line," said
Gelinas, who plays alongside Linden and Bure. "I think we're
playing our system better and because of that, we're getting
lots of chances. I think we're starting to realize where each
other are going to be. We've been playing together three games
now so I know where Pavel's going to go and Trevor and so on."
Linden agreed.
"I think we have a nice mix," he said. "Marty's a good
up-and-down player and he works hard. I try to do that myself.
And of course Pavel's a great player. If we're quick and play
hard and rotate the puck well, we can do well."
St. Louis rallied to tie it on goals by Stephane Matteau and
Shafranov. Matteau put a shot through traffic from the right
circle that made it between McLean's pads and Shafranov tipped
Christer Olsson's drive from the top of the slot.
Jon's 3 stars:
1. Martin Gelinas
2. Trevor Linden
3. Konstantin Shafranov
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