It was built up as a mismatch—the Rangers' high-octane offence and stingy D against a Canucks team that, according to the TSN panel, could not put the puck in the net.
The Canucks, as they have thus far this season, once again proved the critics wrong in this one, putting up six goals en route to a 6-3 win over their former captain and offensive leader Markus Naslund's new team.
A matchup that featured two of the elite goalies in the NHL was quickly finished in the second period after Henrik Lundquist allowed the fifth Canuck goal on only 17 shots and was replaced by Steve Valiquette at 5:33 of the period.
Kyle Wellwood once again got thing going for the Canucks with a highlight-reel breakaway goal, his team-leading eighth of the season. Alex Burrows added a shorthanded goal to make it 2-0, then another in the second before Ryan Johnson made it 4-0 and Pavol Demitra made it 5-1 before Lundquist was pulled. Voros cut the lead to 5-2 before the period was over.
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The Rangers came out into the third very determined and the Canucks looked to be on their heels for much of the third period. Fortunately for Vancouver, the Canucks have a pretty darn good goalie by the name of Roberto Luongo, who weathered the storm.
"For some reason, we kind of sat back," Burrows said. "We weren't as aggressive as we should have been, but Louie made some great saves again."
Ryan Callahan made it interesting with a power-play goal in the third, but the Rangers got no closer, as Daniel Sedin added an empty-netter to ice the game, allowing the Canucks to take three out of a possible four points thus far on their road trip.
"We scored a lot of goals early, and, especially against a goalie like that, it's nice to get," Luongo said.
Sami Salo was hurt—no word on his status, and Alex Edler returned from a two-game absence due to the flu. With the win, the Canucks moved back into first place with 24 points and will return to action tomorrow in a tough divisional matchup in Minnesota to take on the Wild.
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