Canucks Beat Oilers on Tikkanen’s Overtime Goal

Esa Tikkanen’s second goal of the game, at 42 seconds of overtime, gave the Vancouver Canucks a 5-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers Friday night at Edmonton.

Tikkanen circled around the Edmonton net and banked the puck off defenseman Bryan Marchment’s skate just beyond the reach of goaltender Curtis Joseph. The goal was Tikkanen’s third of the season.

Todd Marchant thought he had given the Oilers the win when he was credited with a goal during a mad scramble in the Vancouver crease with 2:46 left in the third period. But Mike Ridley, who had been crunched on an open-ice check by Marchment earlier in the game, forced overtime when he banged in Martin Gelinas’s pass with 1:25 left.

Chicago 3, Dallas 2--Jeff Shantz of the Blackhawks, who has been in Coach Craig Hartzburg’s doghouse lately, scored with 3:12 left in overtime for a victory at Dallas.

“I hope this will light a fire in me,” said Shantz, whose previous goal came last April 5 at Dallas. “Maybe this will get me back in the lineup and give me a chance to prove myself.”

Hartzburg had scratched Shantz from Chicago’s two previous games amid rumors that he could be traded.

Shantz came up big against Dallas, however. He fired a 15-foot rebound that glanced off defenseman Craig Ludwig’s stick, through a tangle of skates and legs, and past a screened Andy Moog, one of the NHL’s hottest goaltenders.

Detroit 2, Ottawa 2--Radek Bonk and Alexandre Daigle scored third-period goals as the Senators erased a two-goal deficit to pull out a tie with the Red Wings at Kanata, Canada.

“I guess we have the best comebacks in the NHL,” said Bonk, whose first goal of the season started the Senators toward their sixth come-from-behind performance in 11 games.

Ottawa (3-3-5) is undefeated in five games at the Corel Centre this season.

Ottawa’s home ice success--two wins, three ties--hasn’t translated into ticket sales. This game drew only 14,158.

Buffalo 4, St. Louis 2--Barrie Moore and Curtis Brown scored third-period goals and Dominik Hasek stopped 33 shots to lead the Sabres at St. Louis.

The Blues lost their fourth in a row, while the Sabres ended a two-game losing streak.

The Blues were leading 2-1 when Moore scored his first goal of the season on a power play at 2:43 to tie the score. The Blues argued that a Buffalo player was in the crease when Moore scored, but referee Don Koharski allowed the goal after it was reviewed by the video goal judge.

Washington 4, Pittsburgh 2--It all came together for the Capitals’ Joe Juneau, who had come to training camp with the sole intention of becoming a scorer instead of a playmaker and finally produced with his second career hat trick in this victory over the Penguins at Landover, Md.

Backup goalie Olaf Kolzig stopped 39 shots as the struggling Penguins remained winless on the road.

Phoenix 3, Calgary 2--Jeremy Roenick’s first goal of the season, with 52 seconds left in overtime, gave the Coyotes a victory at Calgary.

Roenick intercepted an errant clearing pass by Theoren Fleury and beat goaltender Rick Tabaracci with a high wrist shot.

Coyote goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin made 40 saves and stymied the Flames when they had several chances to win the game late in regulation.