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Naslund, Luongo help Canucks hammer Ducks

Nov 28, 2007 - 7:05 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- A major reason for the Vancouver Canucks' success this season has been the resurgence of Markus Naslund.

Naslund scored a goal and set up another and Roberto Luongo made 25 saves en route to his second consecutive shutout as the Canucks cruised to a 4-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.

"I felt we played a strong," Naslund said. "It was a good measuring stick playing against these guys. We knew that we had to play a strong game to beat them and I think we pulled it off."

Ryan Kesler added two tallies and Henrik Sedin had two assists for Vancouver, which moved atop the Northwest Division with the win.

After a scoreless first period, the Canucks' offense came alive in the middle session.

Naslund opened the scoring at 3:20 with his 11th goal of the season. He took a pass from Daniel Sedin and fired a shot to the top corner past Ducks goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

"It was a good play by Danny," Naslund said. "I just wanted to get a shot off quick and it was nice to see it go in."

The 34-year-old Swede has 11 goals and 22 points in 24 games this season. He is coming off a disappointing 2006-07 campaign, which he had just 24 tallies after scoring at least 32 goals in each of the previous five seasons.

It was all the offense Luongo needed.

Luongo has not surrendered a goal in over 135 minutes. He blocked 27 shots in a 2-0 triumph over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.

"I thought our guys were playing for the right reasons," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "Once we got ahead and once we got the fourth goal, the focus on our bench was thinking about the right net and that net was Roberto. We made a couple of plays there that he bailed us out in the third, but I think our guys really wanted to buckle down and get him another 'zero'."

Luongo was relatively untested after the opening session. He turned aside 15 shots in the first period, just four in the next, and six more in the third to record his third shutout of the season and 35th career.

"I was able to see pretty much every shot tonight," Luongo said. "Even though they got a lot of shots in the first period, they were mostly off the rush, and whatever shot they did get off from the perimeter I was able to see it so kudos to the guys for a good job boxing out."

Kesler doubled Vancouver's lead with 7:22 remaining in the second. While on a 5-on-3 advantage, Kesler poked a rebound past Giguere, who stopped Naslund's initial shot from the top of the right circle.

"We had a terrible first 20 (minutes)," Kesler said. "We couldn't generate anything offensively and it felt like we were scrambling in our own zone and we turned it around in the second. And that's what good teams do they find a way to win."

After the goal, Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger delivered a cross check to the back of Kesler. Pronger was not penalized on the play, despite the boos that came from the home crowd.

"Seeing the replay on the jumbotron, you can clearly see that my hands were in the air already," Kesler said of the late hit. "He just wanted to get a lick in on me I guess."

The Canucks, however, would exact their revenge on the scoreboard just under four minutes later when blue-liner Alexander Edler notched his second goal of the campaign to extend their lead to 3-0 with 3:27 left in the frame.

Kesler added an insurance goal - his seventh of the season - at 5:05 of the third period to give Vancouver a 4-0 lead and chase Giguere from the game. Jonas Hiller, who replaced Giguere, denied Henrik Sedin on a penalty shot with less than a minute to play.

Todd Bertuzzi made his first trip to Vancouver since he was traded in the summer of 2006. Injuries prevented Bertuzzi from playing against the Canucks while he was with Detroit and Florida, the team the Canucks traded him to in a deal that included Luongo.

Bertuzzi, who received a mixture of jeers and cheers each time he touched the puck, had a fairly uneventful night.

"It's what I thought," Bertuzzi said of the crowd response. "It was very nice to come back and see a lot of familiar faces, but like I said, it's time that everyone moved on and continue."

After receiving a large applause from the sellout crowd at General Motors Palace, Bertuzzi's biggest opportunity came early in the second period when he failed to convert a breakaway.

"(Bertuzzi) was like the rest of our team," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "I thought he had a decent first period but after that he fit in with the mold of our group. We didn't do very much after that point."