Canucks Make Brodeur Look Ordinary In 5-2 Win

The Vancouver Canucks got to New Jersey Devils' star goaltender Martin Brodeur early and often on route to a 5-2 victory at the Prudential Center in New Jersey. The game was hyped as a showdown between two of the premier goaltenders in the National Hockey League, but Brodeur and Vancouver's Roberto Luongo allowed 5 goals in the first period on 16 shots. Not the stellar goaltending duel that many had hoped.

Vancouver's Alexandre Burrows got his 7th past Brodeur off a shot from Daniel Sedin who spun around in the slot, snapping a quick shot at the New Jersey net that Burrows tipped to open the scoring. 35-year-old defenseman Sami Salo blasted a point shot that beat Brodeur cleanly for Salo's 1st goal of the year. Salo is more of a defensive defenseman, having scored 73 goals over the course of 617 career NHL games with both the Canucks and Ottawa Senators.

Daniel Sedin put the Canucks up 3-0, getting a nice pass from Burrows and breaking in on Brodeur as New Jersey was in the midst of a line change. Sedin streaked over the blue line, snapping a quick shot from the faceoff circle that caught the corner of the net. New Jersey's right winger Niclas Bergfors beat Luongo with a quick shot from the circle to the Vancouver goalie's right after a nice play by defenseman Andy Greene who took a pass from Colin White in his own end, flew into the Canucks' zone drawing 3 Vancouver players to him before passing back to Zajac who beat Luongo for his 7th goal of the season. Travis Zajac tucked one behind Luongo with 6 seconds left in the 1st.

The 2nd period was scoreless, but Vancouver put New Jersey away with 2 more goals in the 3rd, Alexander Edler at 1:36 and Jannik Hansen at 5:18 into the final period. Hansen's 3rd of the season was on a sweet set up by defenseman Kevin Bieksa who slipped a pass to Hansen in front of Brodeur and Hansen deposited the puck behind the Devils' netminder.

New Jersey's Zach Parise had his 10 game points streak snapped, although the left winger had 5 shots on Luongo, including a very close chance in the third. In those 10 games going back to November 7th, Parise had 9 goals, 6 assists for 15 points.

With the loss, New Jersey slips to a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games, and remain 3 points back of the Atlantic Division leading Pittsburgh Penguins who have 38 points on the season, although the Devils have 3 games in hand on the Pens. Vancouver is currently mired in 3rd place in the Northwest Division with 30 points, seven points back of division-leading Calgary.