Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

It would not have been unreasonable for Jonathan Toews or Martin Havlat to dash off with the puck seconds after the ceremonial opening face-off Thursday night to try to get a good shot on Roberto Luongo.

The Blackhawks had heard so much about the importance of a fast start before Game 4 of their Stanley Cup Western Conference semifinal series with the Vancouver Canucks that they could be excused for wanting to get things under way as soon as Bulls rookie standout Derrick Rose handled puck-drop duties at the rollicking United Center.

But they trailed 1-0 after two periods.

The Hawks were busy but scoreless during a defense-dominated, 0-0 first period, then spotted the Canucks the first goal of the game when Rick Rypien set up Darcy Hordichuk for his first score of the series at 8:32 of the second.

The play came after the Hawks’ most dangerous forays of the night. Andrew Ladd, Jonathan Toews and Matt Walker all tested Luongo from in close, but he stopped each shot.

Then Rypien collected a long rebound of a deflected slap shot and broke out the other way, sending Hordichuk in alone on Nikolai Khabibulin with a pass off a brilliant spin move.

The Hawks had a power-play opportunity a short time later when Shane O’Brien was sent off for slashing Dustin Byfuglien, and they were skating 4-on-3 after Havlat and Kevin Bieksa drew matching roughing calls for tangling in Luongo’s crease. But they couldn’t capitalize despite a 17-10 shots-on-goal advantage.

The Hawks were firing a ton of rubber at Luongo, including five shots on goal in the first four minutes, four during a power play after Bieksa went off for interference when he took Toews down just to Luongo’s left at 3:20.

But Luongo turned aside each of them.

Vancouver had just two shots on goal in the first 10 minutes, but went on the power play at 10:01 when Troy Brouwer was whistled for boarding. Khabibulin did not face a shot as the Hawks did an excellent job not only killing the penalty but creating their best opportunity when Patrick Sharp broke loose and got a shot on Luongo.

Bieksa was the instigator in an early skirmish with Ladd that set the tone for a chippy first period in which the Hawks outshot the Canucks 8-4.

Vancouver had struck first in each of the first three games, including twice in the first period of Game 3 on Tuesday night. After a second-period exchange of goals, the Canucks effectively sat on their two-goal lead and registered a 3-1 victory that gave them a 2-1 advantage in the series.

The Canucks also reclaimed home-ice advantage after squandering it by splitting the first two games in Vancouver.

“We’ve had a tendency to play from behind and it finally caught up with us,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’re better playing even or ahead.”

The Hawks were expecting a Game 3 lift from the home crowd, which hadn’t seen them play since April 25, when they took a 3-2 lead over Calgary in their first-round series, closing out the Flames two nights later. The noise was there but the energy wasn’t — Vancouver took the play to the Hawks all night while protecting Luongo with Secret Service-like diligence.

“We didn’t have much jump in our play,” Sharp acknowledged.

Quenneville was even more candid.

“I didn’t like anything about our game,” he said.

Quenneville didn’t fault the effort as much as the execution. He felt the Hawks tried to do too much fancy skating and play-making rather than send the puck and a small army of big bodies at Luongo, a strategy that produced nine goals in the two games at Vancouver.

He also expected more than 14 minutes of play from Patrick Kane, who saw his ice time reduced after he took a bad hooking penalty late in the first period that led to a Vancouver power-play goal early in the second.

The Canucks were without defensive standout Sami Salo, their third-leading playoff scorer, who missed his second straight game with a dreaded lower-body injury. Winger Pavol Demitra was a scratch as well.

Darcy scored his second goal of the season in the Canucks lost to the Avalanche.

Milan Hejduk loves to play against the Vancouver Canucks. The rest of his Colorado Avalanche teammates are enjoying it, too.

Hejduk added to his reputation as a Canucks killer with a goal and two assists, and he scored the decisive goal in the shootout to help the Avalanche beat Vancouver for the eighth straight time, 5-4 on Sunday.

In 57 career games against the Canucks, Hejduk has 34 goals, his highest goal total against any NHL team.

“There is not really a good explanation for it; I don’t have one,” Hejduk said. “I know the stats are good for me against this team, but we do play them a lot, being in the same division, so obviously I would score more goals against them than the others.”

Wojtek Wolski, Marek Svatos and Hejduk scored for Colorado in the shootout, and Peter Budaj made 34 saves. Colorado is 5-1 in shootouts this season.

“Our shootout guys have been very good,” Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. “Those guys are all talented.”

Colorado defenseman Daniel Tjarnqvist forced overtime, scoring his second goal of the season with 2:48 left in regulation.

“He got a quick shot off,” Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider said. “I’m sure it glanced off of somebody to just change it enough that instead of hitting me in the stomach it went under the armpit.”

David Jones and Ryan Smyth also scored in regulation for Colorado, and Paul Stastny had three assists.

Steve Bernier had two goals for Vancouver, Daniel Sedin and Darcy Hordichuk also scored, and Kyle Wellwood connected in the shootout. The Canucks last win over Colorado was a 2-1 overtime victory Nov. 9, 2007.

“In my mind we should have won this game,” Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. “I think we played well enough to win this game, but when you put two pucks in your own net by your own sticks it’s a little more challenging.”

Bernier gave the Canucks a 4-3 lead with 10:03 left in the third on a one-timer from the right circle. Earlier in the period, Hejduk tied it when he picked up a loose puck in the slot and flipped it past Schneider for his 11th goal of the season.

Hordichuk gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead just 2:17 into the game, and it held up until the second period when Jones tied with a great individual effort.

Jones skated out of the Colorado end and chipped the puck along the right boards into the Canucks’ end. He skated by defenseman Shane O’Brien and, with the defenseman trying to check him off the play, Jones leaned over and slipped the puck past Schneider for his fourth goal of the season.

Smyth gave Colorado the lead with his ninth goal. Smyth took a pass from Hejduk as he skated into the Vancouver end and put a hard wrister under Schneider’s right pad to give Colorado a 2-1 lead with 8:35 left in the second period.

Sedin and Bernier scored goals 2:04 apart late in the second period. Sedin knocked in his own rebound for his team-leading 12th goal of the season with 4:11 in the period, and Bernier scored a power-play goal to make it 3-2.

Source: Canucks.com

Nine seconds. That’s all it took. Do you know how hard it is to accomplish something in nine seconds? That’s not enough time to unload the dishwasher, or order a pizza, or realize you forgot to do your taxes. Read the rest of this entry »

Rich Peverley’s second-period goal broke a tie and lifted the Nashville Predators to a 3-1 win over the Red Wings on Saturday to snap Detroit’s five-game winning streak. Read the rest of this entry »

Johan Franzen scored two power-play goals and the Detroit Red Wings held on for a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »

The Nashville Predators signed goaltender Jeremy Smith to an entry-level contract Wednesday.

Smith, just 18 years old, was selected by Nashville in the second round of the 2007 entry draft. In 40 games this season with Plymouth of the Ontario Hockey League, Smith has posted a 2.86 goals-against average and .921 save percentage with three shutouts.

Smith was also Team USA’s starting netminder for the 2008 World Junior Championships, going 4-2-0 with a 2.40 GAA.

Martin Erat notched the first hat trick of his career as the Nashville Predators continued their domination of the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-1 win at Rexall Place.

J.P. Dumont and Ville Koistinen also scored for the Predators, who have won two straight.

Dan Ellis stopped 29 shots in the win for Nashville, which now has 76 points and jumped into eighth place in the Western Conference.

“It’s 15 games and it’s going to be a nice run,” Erat said. “It’s just packed around eighth place and we have to get the points from every game when we can.”

Nashville has swept the series with Edmonton for the second straight year and has won nine of 12 overall.

Tom Gilbert scored the lone goal for the Oilers, who had a four-game winning streak stopped. Mathieu Garon started in net, but was pulled after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Dwayne Roloson played the final two periods and gave up two goals on 12 shots.

“Some nights you’re going to play good and not win, and some nights you’re going to play bad and end up with a win, but tonight we didn’t deserve it at all,” Garon said.

Nashville scored just 55 seconds into the game as Dumont blasted a hard shot from the left circle that handcuffed Garon.

Less than three minutes later, Erat notched his first goal of the game as he threw a shot on net that banked off of defender Steve Staios and got past Garon.

Nashville took a 3-0 lead at the 13:09 mark of the first as Erat picked the top right corner with a blast from the right point.

Erat completed the natural hat trick just 54 seconds into the second period as he banged in a rebound off a shot from Shea Weber.

Edmonton finally got a goal at the 5:45 mark of the second as Gilbert sneaked in from the right point to slap a shot past Ellis to make it a 4-1 game.

However, Nashville regained its four-goal advantage less than four minutes later as Vern Fiddler gained the zone and dropped a pass to a trailing Koistinen, whose hard shot beat Roloson.

Ellis made eight saves in the third period to keep Edmonton from rallying.

J. P. Dumont and Rich Peverley scored 23 seconds apart in the third period to lift the Nashville Predators to a 6-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Sunday night. Read the rest of this entry »