Canucks 4, Maple Leafs 0
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Roberto Luongo, a favorite to start in goal for Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics, stopped 18 shots to backstop the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-0 win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday at Rogers Arena.
It was Luongo's second shutout of the season.
The Canucks power play ranked second-worst in the league heading in and was just 2-of-31 the previous 13 games. It wasn't much better Saturday, going 1-of-9, but it did produce the opening goal.
Daniel Sedin got credit, eight seconds into a power play, after his brother Henrik put a high shot at Reimer at 6:03 of the first period with Toronto's Nazem Kadri in the penalty box for hooking.
In a classic set play, Ryan Kesler redirected a slap pass from Dan Hamhuis back to Henrik Sedin in the circle. His high slap shot went in off Daniel's jersey.
The Canucks took advantage of a Leafs turnover to go up 2-0 just 2:07 into the second period. Canucks winger Zack Kassian's skate made hard contact in the corner with the ankle of Leafs center Dave Bolland, who fell to the ice and would need help getting off. He suffered a serious cut and did not return. Kassian took advantage to move to the slot and buried a pass from Brad Richardson behind the Leafs net.
Vancouver went up 3-0 just over five minutes into the second period by turning a faceoff in their own zone into a 2-on-1 break.
Chris Higgins beat Maple Leafs goalie Reimer with a wrist shot from the faceoff dot.
Defenseman Dan Hamhuis scored the final goal from Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer's doorstep in mop-uptime with no doubt about the game's outcome.
Sniper Phil Kessel, who had nine goals in his last 14 games, had a chance to put the Leafs on the scoreboard at 14:21 of the second with a quick shot from the center hash marks, but was stoned by Luongo's right pad.
The Canucks registered the game's first 11 shots before the Leafs finally got a puck to Luongo. Vancouver finished with a 46-19 shot advantage.
The Leafs wrapped up a road trip through Western Canada by going 2-1.
The loss ended Toronto's win streak at three, while the Canucks won for the fifth time in six games.
It was the Leafs' 11th straight loss to the Canucks, in both Vancouver and Toronto.
NOTES: The start of the game was delayed 25 minutes while the Canucks raised Hall of Famer Pavel Bure's No. 10 to the rafters. Bure had 254 goals and 478 points in 428 games as a Canucks winger. Until RW Alex Ovechkin recently scored 30 goals in 30 games, Bure had been the last player to achieve that feat, in 2001 with the Florida Panthers. ... C Henrik Sedin recorded a point in his 11th straight game, the longest points streak in the NHL so far this season. It was also Sedin's 645th straight game, one off the longest active ironman streak. ... Entering the game, RW Ryan Kesler, RW Henrik Sedin and LW Daniel Sedin were first, second and fourth in ice time among forwards. ... Maple Leafs rookie D Morgan Rielly made his hometown NHL debut. The 19-year-old from West Vancouver, drafted fifth overall in 2012, was a healthy scratch for the first two games this season, but has since dressed for 13 straight games. Heading into the game, Rielly was averaging 18:07 of ice time. ... It was also LW Mason Raymond's first visit to Rogers Arena since the Canucks let him depart as a free agent this summer. The forward had 178 points in 374 games as a Canuck.
