Canucks Roll Up Early Lead To Beat Depleted Oilers

The Vancouver Canucks ran up an early 4-0 first period lead, chasing Edmonton Oilers netminder Jeff Deslauriers from the net after only 11 shots and 4 goals. No excuses, but the Oilers are missing 7 players including number one goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin, who is out with back spasms. The latest to fall into the injured category, Ales Hemsky, out for shoulder surgery. Oilers' head coach, Pat Quinn was forced to drop rookie Devan Dubnyk into his first National Hockey League game to try to see if he could stem the tide. Dubnyk did okay in his debut, allowing 3 more goals, and facing 24 shots over 2 and a half periods.

Christian Ehrhoff, Alexandre Burrows, Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin scored early, with Ehroff and Raymond getting there goals on the power play. Deslauriers was yanked after Sedin scored his 1st of the season as he was returning from missing several games off due to an ankle injury.

Gilbert Brule got Edmonton on the board with a power play marker of his own, beating Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo at 14:44. Vancouver tough guy, Tanner Glass scored his 2nd goal in as many games with 17 seconds left in the 1st period giving Vancouver a 5-1 lead heading into the 2nd.

Rookie Oilers right winger Colin McDonald got his 1st ever NHL goal in his 2nd pro game. Dustin Penner got the Oilers to 5-3 with his team-high 15th of the year, but Luongo and the rest of the Canucks shut down Edmonton pretty much from there. Defenseman Alexander Edler netted his 1st goal, also on the power play to make it 6-3 at the end of two. Mikael Samuelsson closed out the scoring, with his 10th, second most for Vancouver. Henrik Sedin has 14 goals for the Canucks this season and leads them with 28 points.