Henrik Sedin scored twice in a 3:37 span of the second period and added
an assist to lead the Vancouver Canucks to their first victory of the
season, a 7-1 romp over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.
Ryan Kesler, Mason Raymond and Steve
Bernier scored their first goals of the season late in the first
period, and Mikael Samuelsson and Alex Burrows scored 19 seconds apart
in the third to help Vancouver avoid the first 0-4 start in franchise
history.
Roberto Luongo, who was pulled in
Vancouver's last game and came in with an uncharacteristic .820 save
percentage and 4.55 goals-against average, made 27 saves.
Tomas Plekanec scored for Montreal,
and Carey Price stopped 25 of 32 shots before being pulled with 8
minutes left. The Canadiens lost for the second time in two nights
after winning their first two games.
Vancouver appeared to take advantage
of a Montreal team that flew in late after losing to Calgary,
outshooting the Canadiens 14-4 in the opening period and jumping out to
a 3-0 lead.
Kesler took a pass from Alexander
Elder in full flight and split the defensive pairing of Hal Gill and
Yannick Weber, skating in alone from the blue line and beating Price
with a nice forehand-backhand-forehand deke.
Raymond doubled the lead by getting
behind the defense through the neutral zone, cutting hard through the
crease and slipping a backhand through Price's legs.
Bernier made it 3-0 on a power play
with 1:26 left, firing the puck into an empty net after a nice blind
passing play from Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
Montreal came out firing in the
second period, recording the first 14 shots of the period and getting a
sharp-angle power-play goal from Plekanec before the Canucks managed
their first shot more than halfway through the period. But any chance
of a comeback ended when Plekanec took a tripping penalty and Henrik
Sedin was left alone to convert a rebound from identical twin Daniel.
Henrik added his second goal with
4:24 left in the period when a turnover at center created a 2-on-0
break with Bernier from the blue line. Sedin faked a pass before
lifting a backhand over the outstretched blocker of Price.
It was a tough night for Price, who
was playing his first NHL game in his home province in front of family
and friends after being benched in his lone visit last season despite
having more than 800 fans in attendance.
Samuelsson jammed a power play
rebound through him midway through the third as the Canucks went
3-for-5 with the man advantage. After Burrows scored on the next shift,
Price was mercifully pulled in favor of Jaroslav Halak.
Notes
Daniel Sedin had three
assists, and Kesler also had two assists to go with his goal after
recording just one assist his first three games. Weber, a 21-year-old
rookie called up after top defenseman Andrei Markov was hurt in the
season opener, was minus-3 through two periods. … LW Tanner Glass
made his regular-season Canucks debut in place of Russian rookie Sergei
Shirokov, who has struggled after leading the team with seven points in
four preseason games.