Recap: Vancouver vs. Chicago

Antti Niemi stopped all 30 shots he faced for his second career shutout as Chicago downed Vancouver, 1-0, spoiling the return of Canucks forward Daniel Sedin.

Bryan Bickell, playing in just his 13th NHL game, including his sixth this season, had the lone goal in the third period as the Blackhawks logged their seventh straight win.

Niemi earned his first career shutout in a 4-0 win at Florida October 3, and on Sunday the 26-year-old backstop made 11 big saves in the third period.

Roberto Luongo made 16 saves for Vancouver, which had a two-game winning streak broken.

Sedin made his return to the ice after missing 18 games due to a broken foot, but he and his twin brother, Henrik, failed to produce for the Canucks. Each Sedin had three shots on net.

"I don't think we had enough guys in front of the net," said Daniel. "He [Niemi] had an easy game I think. That's one thing we have to work on."

Bickell scored on a scramble in front just 72 seconds into the final period. It was his first goal since April 2007.

Niemi had to come up with several huge saves and Vancouver nearly tied it with 6 1/2 minutes left, but Alexander Edler's shot hit the right post. Vancouver pulled Luongo for an extra attacker in the final minute and pressured the net. A shot from Kevin Bieksa went wide of the net as the horn inadvertently sounded in the final seconds. A sprawling Niemi then made a sprawling stop on Alex Burrows.

Niemi made 12 saves in the first period and seven more in the second, while Luongo stopped 13 shots over the first two stanzas.

"There wasn't a lot of room on the ice," said Canucks coach Alain Vigneault. "Both teams were competing extremely hard and we played our best period in the third. We out-chanced them 6-1 and lost the third 1-0 on a broken play."

Game Notes

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