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Raymond, Jaffray make instant impact as Canucks win

Dec 13, 2007 - 7:34 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Two newcomers - Mason Raymond and Jason Jaffray - each scored their first career goal as the Vancouver Canucks snapped a two-game losing streak by downing the Anaheim Ducks, 3-2, on Wednesday.

With the Ducks in the middle of a line change, Jaffray skated down the right wing and passed to Raymond, who knocked the puck down and backhanded it past goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere on the stick side at 17:35 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.

"We went in on a 2-on-1," Raymond said. "(Jaffray) made a good pass to me. All I had to do was to put it in the net. I knew that Giguere had to go side-to-side, and I put it past him.

"This goal is one I will always remember, always cherish. That puck is going up on the shelf at home. The most important thing is that the team played well. Getting that first one is a bit of a relief for me. I feel a lot more relaxed now."

After Daniel Sedin doubled the lead just 65 seconds later, Jaffray made it 3-0 at 4:54 of the second. From behind the net, Jaffray attempted a pass to the front, but the puck hit Giguere's stick and bounced back to him.

Jaffray then skated to the doorstep and fired it past Giguere.

"(Taylor) Pyatt was actually going to take a shot on his backhand but he saw that I was on my forehand so I just kind of stole it off his stick," Jaffray said. "I knew that with Giguere, he's a butterfly goalie, so I had to get it upstairs as fast as possible. I just threw it far side and it went over his blocker.

"I felt like I could jump five or six feet in the air. It's an unbelievable feeling. It stands as a game-winner now, so it's definitely something I'll be telling my kids about many years down the line."

Backup netminder Curtis Sanford, who was filling in for an injured Roberto Luongo, stopped 33 shots and withstood a desperate rally by the Ducks over the last few minutes to nail down his fourth win of the season.

Anaheim outshot Vancouver, 16-1, in the third period.

"It just seemed like they were coming in waves," Sanford said. "That might have been them getting their legs back coming off the road trip they were on."

"(Sanford) played the game of his life tonight," Anaheim defenseman Mathieu Schneider said. "I thought we had bodies in front, we had deflections. Everything just seemed to be hitting him in the right spot."

Sanford credited Raymond and Jaffray for providing a spark.

"To rely on two guys like that to come up, it's their first game up in a while, to set a good pace for us was key," Sanford said. "Everybody followed and it's nice when you can play with the lead too - you can never undermine playing with the lead."

"Both Jaffray and Mason played a really strong game," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. "Obviously, they were excited about getting this opportunity and both came through for us and scored important goals. Obviously, Curtis Sanford played a great game, especially in the third. I thought we were good for the first two periods, but obviously in the third we were hanging on there. He made big saves."

Anaheim was playing its first home game after a three-game, four-day road trip.

"The first period was kind of a weird period," Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said. "We were trying to get our matchups in and it was tough to get rolling. I thought we did a great job coming out in the last half of the game. The bounces didn't go our way and they worked a little bit harder than us to get the win tonight."

"I didn't think that we played poorly, I thought that we lacked execution in the early part of the game, then we got desperate in the third period," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "We played more of the kind of hockey that we needed to play in the third period, but we should have played 60 minutes like that."

Luongo, who missed his second consecutive game with a rib injury, was not the only notable absence from the Canucks' lineup. Vancouver also was missing center Brendan Morrison, who had his streak of 542 consecutive games come to an end due to a wrist injury that will require surgery later this week.

Defenseman Chris Pronger got the Ducks on the board at 5:51 of the second, when he drilled a slap shot from the left faceoff circle past a helpless Sanford.

Pronger assisted on Anaheim's second goal as well when he fed Schneider for another slapper, which was tipped in by Todd Bertuzzi at 18:29 of the third.

"We put ourselves in a hole," said Schneider of the first period. "I think after that we certainly came out with a lot of intensity. We needed to play the beginning of the game the way we finished the game.

"The third period we just poured it on them. We could have easily won that game. It was a little frustrating because I thought we had a lot of great scoring opportunities."

Getzlaf said he wasn't surprised to see Vancouver's rookies play well.

"There's a whole pile of guys who play in the minors who could probably play in the NHL," Getzlaf said. "When teams call those guys up, they're more excited than ever. They came out and got big goals for their team."

While Morrison was missing his first game in some time, Ducks center Andy McDonald set a franchise record by playing in his 276th consecutive game, surpassing the old mark set by Samuel Pahlsson.