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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Andrew Cassels isn't going to break any
goal-scoring records because he's never been a player who crashes
the net.
|  | | Canucks left wing Steve Kariya battles the Ducks' Vitaly Vishnevski, right. |
The Vancouver Canucks center has been a 20-goal scorer three
times in 10 full NHL seasons, but never tallied more than 22.
His first career hat trick in 743 NHL games in Wednesday night's
7-2 romp over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks was quite a surprise.
"Even though it's not a big part of my game, if you want to
score goals, you've got to go to the net and shoot the puck. You're
not going to score if you don't shoot," said Cassels, who scored
all three goals in the second period after getting two goals and 11
assists in his first 14 games this season.
"I wasn't shooting enough and I wasn't going to the net hard
enough. I know I've been trying to get the puck to Markus (Naslund)
and Todd (Bertuzzi) a lot, but tonight Todd made some great passes
to me, and it was just a matter of going to the net and let him
make the plays."
Cassels scored his first goal at 2:37 of the second for a 3-1
lead. Cassels scored his next two goals 2:38 apart, giving the
Canucks a 6-2 cushion with 1:21 left in the period.
On his second goal, he had his back to the net and got his stick
on a difficult centering pass from Bertuzzi before spinning around
and beating relief goalie Dominic Roussel. Moments later, Bertuzzi
shook off Paul Kariya's check and threw a pass in front to Cassels,
who completed his hat trick.
"It just shows you that if you go to the net and pay the price,
you're going to score goals," Cassels said. "Our line was skating
well tonight. And if you're going to the net, it creates a lot more
room for the guy with the puck."
Steve Kariya, Peter Schaefer and Daniel Sedin scored on power
plays and Adrian Aucoin also had a goal, helping extend the
Canucks' road unbeaten streak to five games.
Paul Kariya scored a short-handed goal for Anaheim, marking the
first time that he and his younger brother have scored in the same
NHL game. They faced each other once last season when Steve was a
rookie.
"I doubt he's happy about it right now, even though he scored a
goal," Steve said. "But it was a big win for us. We wanted to get
back on track and we had a good team effort. We wanted to keep the
puck down in their end as much as possible."
Ladislav Kohn also scored for the Ducks, winless in five games.
They have lost their last three meetings with the Canucks by a
combined score of 18-4.
Steve Kariya, a healthy scratch in three of Vancouver's previous
five games, scored his first goal in 11 games this season at 4:13
of the second period to drive Guy Hebert to the bench with a 4-1
deficit.
Hebert faced 17 shots before being benched. Hebert also was
driven from the nets by the Canucks during an 8-1 drubbing last
season.
"This team needs to want to win every night," defenseman Oleg
Tverdovsky said following a postgame team meeting. "We have to
find a way to win and we need to show up. The bottom line is that
we're professionals and we need to do our job."
Paul Kariya was serving a holding penalty when Schaefer opened
the scoring 4:27 in.
Anaheim's German Titov was given a major and automatic game
misconduct for boarding Schaefer from behind at 7:05, causing the left wing to bleed. Four minutes later, Vitaly Vishnevski took
a slap shot that Paul Kariya deflected through Felix Potvin's pads
to tie it. The short-handed goal was the 13th of his career.
But the Canucks, who were outshot 4-1 during their five-minute
power play, regained the lead a minute later when Aucoin used
Vishnevski as a screen and beat Hebert high to the stick side. The
goal came one second after Titov's penalty elapsed.
Game notes
Cassels' hat trick was the first by a Vancouver player
since Dec. 4, 1998, when Markus Naslund victimized Dallas. It was
the first against the Ducks since Pavol Demitra's on Feb. 12 of
last season at St. Louis. ... Kariya's short-handed goal was
Anaheim's first in a home game since March 7, 1999, when Steve
Rucchin helped beat Detroit. ... Anaheim is 0-for-17 on the power
play in its last four games, after scoring at least one power-play
goal in six consecutive games and 11 of its first 13 contests.
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NHL Scoreboard
Vancouver Clubhouse
Anaheim Clubhouse
RECAPS
Pittsburgh 5
Philadelphia 2
Montreal 4
Florida 2
Nashville 4
New Jersey 3
Toronto 5
Carolina 0
Calgary 1
Minnesota 0
San Jose 3
Chicago 2
Detroit 4
Phoenix 2
Vancouver 7
Anaheim 2
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