Niemi comes up big in net

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Bryan Bickell scored his first goal of the season 1:12 into the third period, and Antii Niemi made 30 saves to lead the Blackhawks to a 1-0 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.

After Niemi made several great saves to keep it scoreless through two periods, defenseman Brian Campbell helped set up the only goal early in the third, skating in from the point, eluding a check on the boards, and cutting into the crease. He lost the puck in a crowd in front, but it squirted right to Bickell at the far side for a tap-in goal behind sprawled goalie Roberto Luongo.

It was Bickell’s first goal since April 2007. He was playing his sixth game of a season spent mostly in the minor leagues but has spent the past four games on the Hawks’ top line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

Niemi did the rest, making a couple more brilliant stops as the Hawks won their seventh consecutive game despite playing the night before in Edmonton.

He got a glove on Henrik Sedin’s open shot from the slot, robbed Alex Burrows with his left pad, and got a break when Alex Edler hit the post with 6:19 left.

The Canucks welcomed top goal-scorer Daniel Sedin back to the top line after missing more than six weeks and 18 games with a broken foot. But it wasn’t enough to solve Niemi, who got a rare start after watching Cristobal Huet play his sixth straight during Saturday night’s 5-2 win in Edmonton.

Niemi was 3-1-1 with a shutout in five appearances this season, but the lone regulation loss was against the Canucks and the 26-year-old Finn hadn’t played in 2˝ weeks. Despite that, there wasn’t any rust in his game.

Niemi also got a bit of a break when Ryan Kesler’s shot hit the butt end of his stick along the goal line on a net drive with 3:18 left in the first period. But there was nothing lucky about the right pad he shot out to take an empty net and sure goal away from Kesler atop the crease on a power play a few minutes later.

SUNDAY’S OTHER NHL GAME

Lightning 4, Thrashers 3 (OT): At Atlanta, Steven Stamkos scored his 15th goal at 2:56 of overtime to give Tampa Bay its second consecutive victory.