Richards, Morrow send Stars past Canucks
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 9:53 PM PT
The Associated Press
Brad Richards scored midway through the second period and Brenden Morrow added a power-play goal in the third to lead the Dallas Stars to a 2-1 win over Vancouver, despite a 45-save performance by Canucks rookie Cory Schneider on Friday night.
Marty Turco stopped 32 shots to help Dallas snap the Canucks' winning streak at three games. Mason Raymond scored for Vancouver, making the second stop on a five-game trip.
"We got a lead tonight, which helped a little bit," Richards said. "That's nice, because no matter how many saves [Schneider] is making, the first one kind of relaxes the bench a little bit and we realized that we can score on him."
Schneider was outstanding in his first start and second appearance of the season.
Andrew Raycroft, who started four straight in place of the injured Roberto Luongo (ribs), got a break after a 5-2 victory Thursday night in Minnesota.
Dallas turned up the pressure in the first period, holding a 22-10 shots edge.
But Schneider, the former Boston College star, was perfect, denying prime scoring chances by Mike Ribeiro and Loui Eriksson — both alone in the low slot — in the final 3½ minutes of the opening period.
"It's only my sixth start [in the NHL] so this is part of the process," Schneider said.
"I'll have some good ones and I'm sure a few bad ones along the way. This helps my confidence. I learned a lot tonight. You never know when you're going to get your next chance. You've got to make the most of it."
The Stars finally cashed in with their 29th shot at 8:05 of the second period when Richards flicked Eriksson's centring pass past Schneider for a 1-0 lead.
Dallas had a chance to expand its advantage when Ribeiro went in on a breakaway, but Ribeiro got off a weak shot that Schneider was able to smother with 1:53 remaining in the second period.
That left the Stars clinging to only a 1-0 edge entering the third period despite a 40-17 shots advantage.
Morrow struck from close-in on a power play to make it 2-0 at 3:50 of the final period before Raymond ended Turco's bid for his 37th career shutout at 8:14.
Vancouver was unable to capitalize on 18 seconds' worth of a 5-on-3 with over six minutes left.
"It was one of those games where we didn't have it for 40 minutes," Vancouver's Ryan Kesler said.
"Cory played an unbelievable game and that last 20 minutes, we left everything on the ice."
