VANCOUVER – Alex Burrows scored twice and Ryan Miller made 38 saves as the Vancouver Canucks hammered the Arizona Coyotes 7-1 on Monday night.
Daniel Sedin, Kevin Bieksa, Brad Richardson, Chris Higgins and Shawn Matthias all scored for Vancouver, which won its second straight heading into the holiday break at 20-11-2. Miller improved his record to 18-7 with the win.
Defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored the lone goal for the reeling Coyotes (11-18-4), who have just one win in their last eight games.
Mike Smith, who came into the game with one win in his last 12 starts, struggled mightily and was hooked early in the second after giving up four goals on 11 shots.
Backup Devan Dubnyk came in relief and made 26 saves for Arizona.
Despite making a big save on Derek Dorsett from in all alone early in the game, Smith had a tough opening period and the Canucks capitalized.
First Burrows worked the puck from the corner boards and banked it off Coyotes defenceman Michael Stone to open the scoring at 6:34. The Canucks doubled their lead at 17:17 when Henrik Sedin found Bieksa alone and streaking down left side, as the defenceman put an easy one past Smith to make it 2-0.
It was 3-0 two minutes later when Smith gave up a huge rebound off Radim Vrbata’s long shot from the wing and Daniel Sedin swooped in front to bat the puck in for his eight of the season.
Smith’s night didn’t last much longer.
Less than two minutes into the second, on Vancouver’s first shot of the period, Richardson carried the puck down the ice and rifled it past Smith on the glove side to make it 4-0.
That brought in Dubnyk, who shut out the Canucks 5-0 in the last meeting between the teams on Nov. 14. He was immediately put to work with Vancouver getting two power-play opportunities, the second of which was converted at 12:19 when Burrows scored another goal by banking the puck off an Arizona defenceman standing in front of the net.
The Coyotes finally got on the board soon after with Ryan Stanton off for high-sticking, as Ekman-Larsson wristed it past Miller at 15:03 for his eighth of the season.
The Canucks were back on the man advantage six minutes into the third on an Antoine Vermette tripping call when Higgins took a Linden Vey pass from behind the net and deposited the puck in the net at 7:09 for a 6-1 lead. Matthias put the game way out of reach with another power-play goal just over two minutes later with Shane Doan in the box for hooking.
Vancouver finished the night 3-for-6 on the power play.
Notes: Jannik Hansen, who collapsed on the bench after taking a big hit during the second period of Saturday’s Canucks win over the visiting Flames, was expected to suit up against Arizona, but he was pulled prior to the game for further medical evaluation. … The Canucks and Coyotes meet three more times this season, with the next game March 5 at Gila River Arena.
Comments