Luongo blanks Hawks 3-0 as three game winning streak ends

 

Roberto Luongo made 32 saves for his second shutout of the season and 53rd overall, leading the Vancouver Canucks to their fourth straight victory, 3-0 over the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks who suffered their eighth regulation loss at home, matching their regular-season total from last season. The Blackhawks are 6-8-0 at home after going 29-8-4 last season at United Center.Tanner Glass, Christian Ehrhoff and Henrik Sedin scored to give the Canucks and Luongo the all the offense they needed to avenge a 7-1 home loss to the Blackhawks on Nov. 20.Sedin’s goal was his first since Nov. 4 and ended an 11-game drought.Luongo came up with several dazzling and point-blank stops to thwart prime scoring chances. The Blackhawks winning streak ended at three games although they dominated play at times and outshot Vancouver 32-18.Veteran Marty Turco was back in nets and made 15 saves. Rookie Corey Crawford started the Blackhawks’ three previous games.The Hawks eliminated Vancouver from the playoffs in the past two seasons, each time in the second round.The Blackhawks controlled the scoreless first, outshooting Vancouver 14-8 and testing Luongo with several prime chances. His best stops were on Patrick Sharp, Dave Bolland and Jonathan Toews in the second half of the period.The Hawks again put some heat on in the second, and Luongo matched it. He made a pad save on Sharp at 7:44 after Sharp and Jack Skille slipped behind the defense and raced in on a 2-on-none. Less than a minute later, Luongo denied Patrick Kane with an acrobatic pad stop on a 2-on-1 break.Loungo’s effort started to pay off when Glass opened the scoring with 8:42 left in the second on only the Canucks’ second shot of the period. Glass shoveled in a loose puck from a scrum in the crease after Dan Hamhuis’ shot hit traffic in front.The Hawks kept the pressure on and Loungo held his ground. With 25 seconds left in the second, he made a point-blank blocker save on Toews after the Chicago captain beat Ryan Kesler and Alexander Edler to skate in alone.During a Blackhawks’ power-play just seconds into the third, Tomas Kopecky fired a shot off the side of the net with Luongo down.Ehrhoff’s power-play goal at 5:06 of the third gave Vancouver a 2-0 lead. Following a faceoff, Ehrhoff’s shot from the right point beat Turco as Kesler screened in front.Sedin scored on a loose rebound of brother Daniel’s shot with 4:25 left to complete the scoring.

NOTES—The Blackhhawks observed a moment of silence before the game for former Cubs third baseman Ron Santo, who died of cancer early Friday. … Marian Hossa missed his second game because of a lower-body injury sustained in practice Monday. Blackhawks RW Fernando Pisani sat out his third with an upper-body injury. … Vancouver C Rick Rypien missed his sixth game on personal leave.