Music: {allcanada} Canucks rally, beat Blackhawks in shootout

Friday, December 20, 2013

{allcanada} Canucks rally, beat Blackhawks in shootout

Elf (2003)

CHICAGO -- Ryan Kesler scored in the eighth round of the shootout to give the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.

Kesler ripped a wrist shot past Antti Raanta to give the Canucks the extra point after they had rallied from a two-goal deficit to get the game past regulation. Eddie Lack stopped 24 shots through 65 minutes and seven of eight in the tiebreaker.

Raanta made 22 saves for Chicago, which couldn't hold the lead after Kris Versteeg and Patrick Kane put the Blackhawks ahead by two less than five minutes into the second period.

Zack Kassian scored in the second period and Daniel Sedin tied the game with a goal midway through the third for Vancouver, which was playing its third game in four nights and came to Chicago after a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

The Blackhawks had two days off between games to rest their legs, and they had plenty of jump in the first period, carrying the play and dominating the puck. They outshot Vancouver 10-3 and took a 1-0 lead on Versteeg's goal at 7:49. Versteeg's seventh of the season came when he tipped Kane's wrister from above the circles through Lack's pads.

Vancouver's best chance to score in the first came early, when Chris Higgins got a breakaway about six minutes into the game. Raanta made a stick save to keep it scoreless and set the stage for Versteeg's goal.

The Canucks couldn't score on a power play early in the second period, and Kane made it 2-0 at 4:57 with his 21st goal, scored off a long rebound of Johnny Oduya's shot. All in one motion, Kane snapped off a shot from near the right faceoff dot that banked off Brad Richardson's left skate and slid underneath a sliding Kevin Bieksa into the net.

It was Kane's sixth goal and 20th point in his 11-game point streak and 37th point in the past 24 games.

This time, the Canucks responded quickly.

Chicago's two-goal cushion lasted 3:22 until Kassian carried a puck into the Blackhawks' defensive zone and beat Raanta with a hard wrister from the left circle. The puck deflected off Brent Seabrook's left leg and took a sharp turn toward the short side, catching Raanta slightly out of position as it hit the back of the net.

Raanta was strong in the first half of the third to help Chicago kill off Vancouver's fourth power play and maintain the 2-1 lead. The Finnish rookie used his stick effectively to break up a couple of opportunities and also stopped a Kesler attempt at the doorstep 5:01 into the third with a nice left pad save.

But another friendly deflection and a spectacular effort by Daniel Sedin gave the Canucks the tying goal at 10:48.

Bieksa sent a cross-ice pass through the low slot and the puck hit a Blackhawks player on its way to Sedin; he kicked it to his stick while falling down and flipped it over Raanta's outstretched left arm, ruffling the jersey sleeve on its way into the net for his 12th of the season.

Raanta and Lack were the story for the rest of regulation, with each making big stops to keep it tied and force overtime.

Elf (2003)