Canucks Beat Slumping Blueshirts

The Vancouver Canucks went right back to Andrew Raycroft against the visiting New York Rangers who were coming to town for the one and only time this season. Coming off a 3 - 0 shutout of the Colorado Avalanche, the Canucks were hoping to get another win on home ice before heading out on a five game road trip.

The Canucks had some chances on the Power Play in the first period but couldn't capitalize and were victim to some good Ranger penalty killing. After feeling some heat for not having a goal in his past few contests, Mikael Samuelsson stepped up and opened the scoring with under 2 minutes to go in the first period. Wade Redden committed a brutal turnover and Samuelsson was alone in front of the net and was able to beat Henrik Lundqvist to give the Canucks the 1 - 0 lead.

The second period was back and forth with both teams having opportunities on the man advantage, especially the Rangers who had a 4 minute Power Play that was unable to generate many shots or scoring chances. In the third, Andrew Raycroft was at his best, he seemed very comfortable in the crease and was calm and collected when needed. He made key saves as the Canucks were shorthanded and then things got physical and some emotion entered the game when an innocent looking altercation between Ryan Kesler and Marion Gaborik set off a chain reaction. The incident took place in the middle of a line change for both teams and saw 10 Rangers in a shoving match and a scrum against 7 Vancouver Canucks.

The scrum lasted for quite some time and saw Kevin Bieksa and Dane Byers get into a war of words which lead to Bieksa and Byers almost coming out of the penalty box and fighting immediately, but they were interrupted and separated by the linesman. Bieksa was furious and the Canucks, despite having 3 less skaters on the ice during the scrum, ended up shorthanded, and it didn't sit well with Alain Vigneault. To add insult to injury, the Canucks gave up a goal just as the penalty ended to Chris Higgins, who scored his first goal of the season and finally broke out of a monumental goal scoring drought.

With the game tied 1 - 1, Bieksa was then charged with a penalty while still inside the penalty box, but the Canucks were able to kill the penalty and then Ryan Kesler made a nice play to find a trailing Rick Rypien who buried a shot over the shoulder of Lundqvist to give the Canucks a 2 - 1 lead in the third. Mikael Samuelsson added his second of the night on a Power Play and Henrik Sedin scored an empty net goal to seal the 4 - 1 victory for Vancouver.

The Canucks head out on the road for back to back games on Thursday and Friday in Minnesota and Dallas.