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October 31, 2009

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Home » Sports » Ice Hockey

Raycroft dazzles for Canucks

ANDREW Raycroft filled in as starting goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday and led them to a 2-1 shootout victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

Raycroft, starting in place of the injured Roberto Luongo (ribs), made 30 saves and a vital a stop on the Kings' final shootout attempt from Ryan Smyth. Mikael Samuelsson then scored to clinch the road win for the Canucks (7-6-0), who have won four of their last five games.

"It was a nice, greasy road win," Raycroft told reporters. "We did a great job killing penalties and keeping their top line off the scoresheet. I'll take (these) all year."

Scott Parse, the first of his career, opened the scoring for Los Angeles at 11:27 in the first period before Samuelsson tied the score at 18:36.

Both sides failed to score in the second and third periods, along with the overtime session, forcing the shootout. It was the second consecutive shootout loss for the Pacific Division-leading Kings (8-4-2), who fell in the same fashion to the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.

"It's a useless part of the game. I hate it but the fans love it," said Los Angeles coach Terry Murray of the shootout format.

"They played a really slow game, it was a good plan. You outshot them 2-to-1, at the end of the day you feel like you should've won."

The Canucks were without eight injured players including Luongo, who was hurt in a win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.

Raycroft was signed by the Canucks in July after playing with the Colorado Avalanche a year ago and was making his first start of the year with his new team.

In Atlanta, Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 12th and 13th goals as the Washington Capitals handed the Atlanta Thrashers their fourth straight loss, 4-3. The Capitals built a 3-0 lead and survived a wild finish. Three goals were scored in the last 2:23, including Zach Bogosian's second of the game for Atlanta just before the buzzer.

In Edmonton, Alberta, Patrick O'Sullivan beat Jimmy Howard with a wrist shot in the third round of a shootout, and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped Henrik Zetterberg on Detroit's final attempt to give Edmonton a 6-5 victory. The Red Wings overcame a 5-1 deficit to force overtime.

Also, it was: Lightning 5, Senators 2; Devils 2, Bruins 1; Coyotes 2, Blues 0; and Predators 2, Blackhawks 0.



 

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