Linden Finds Way to Top for Canucks

Trevor Linden passed an old friend Monday night.

Linden became Vancouver’s leading career goal scorer, passing former team captain Stan Smyl, as the Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-1, at St. Paul, Minn., for their seventh victory in a row.

“Stan’s a special person,” Linden said of Smyl, whose career was winding down when Linden joined the Canucks as the second overall selection in the 1988 NHL draft. “When I came to this team, he was someone I looked up to and he helped me a lot.”

Linden scored a short-handed goal at 5:58 of the third period, giving him 263 in his 12 seasons with the team. In all, Linden has scored 320 goals in 15 NHL seasons.

“It was a beautiful goal for him to get the record for the Canucks,” said Vancouver Coach Marc Crawford, whose team was outshot, 28-17. “It was probably one of the prettier ones he’s scored.”

Linden took advantage of a giveaway by Minnesota’s Cliff Ronning in the neutral zone. He broke in alone and flipped a backhand over Manny Fernandez’s pad

Henrik Sedin also scored for the Canucks, who closed to within two points of the Wild in the Northwest Division.

Ottawa 2, Toronto 0 -- Patrick Lalime made 22 saves as the Senators extended their season-high unbeaten streak to seven games with a victory over the Maple Leafs at Ottawa.

Mike Fisher and Peter Schaefer scored the goals.

Lalime, who has started 17 of Ottawa’s 19 games, got his 21st career shutout and first since April 5 at Washington. Lalime had four shutouts in 12 playoff games for the Senators last spring.

Colorado 1, Chicago 0 -- Dan Hinote scored with 8:37 left at Denver, and David Aebischer had 26 saves as the Avalanche won at home for only the second time this season.

It was Aebischer’s sixth career shutout and the first by an Avalanche goaltender this season.

Chicago, which has lost the first four games of its seven-game trip, got 23 saves from Jocelyn Thibault.

Dallas 5, Phoenix 1 -- Scott Young scored twice, and Mike Modano had a goal and an assist as the Stars remained unbeaten at home in regulation.

Bill Guerin scored on the power play for his team-high 10th goal and Pierre Turgeon had three assists for the Stars, 8-0-0-1 at American Airlines Center this season.

San Jose 4, St. Louis 1 -- Evgeni Nabokov made 32 saves and the Sharks, despite being outshot, 13-4, in the third period, won at St. Louis.

Vincent Damphousse, Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Patrick Marleau scored for San Jose. Scott Mellanby beat Nabokov on the power play to spoil the shutout bid with 3:59 left.

Edmonton 5, Detroit 4 -- Jason Smith beat Manny Legace 1:28 into overtime to lead the Oilers to victory at Detroit.

Smith shoveled a rebound over a prone Legace off a goal-mouth scramble to extend Detroit’s winless streak to three games. The teams tied, 1-1, Saturday night in Edmonton.

New York Rangers 3, Carolina 1 -- Eric Lindros and Ronald Petrovicky scored rare power-play goals, leading the Rangers at New York.

New York had only five power-play goals in 74 chances before Monday and none in the five previous games. Dan Blackburn stopped 30 shots in his ninth straight start for the Rangers in place of Mike Richter.