The Ottawa Senators looked tired after their recent successful road trip, and the surging Vancouver Canucks took full advantage.
Vancouver’s deadly line of Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin and Alex Burrows had nine points, six in the first period alone, as the Canucks downed the Senators 5-2 on Thursday. Henrik Sedin had a goal and three assists, twin brother had Daniel a goal and an assist while Burrows chipped in with a goal and two assists.
“That line was real dominant right of the bat and played real well for us,” Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said.
“They seemed to have a little more energy and they found a way to get it done and I thought our whole team was solid.”
Kevin Bieksa and Ryan Kesler, into an empty net, also scored for the Canucks (29-21-8) who won for the seventh time in their past eight games.
Roberto Luongo made 25 saves for his 18th win of the season. The only Senators to beat him were Dany Heatley and Mike Fisher.
Brian Elliot made his first start in three games in front of a crowd of 19,716 at Scotiabank Place and made 19 saves in the loss.
It was the first game back from a five-game road trip on which the Senators (22-26-9) went 4-0-1 but lost captain Daniel Alfredsson with a broken jaw. Alfredsson was hit with a puck in the face on a shot from Heatley in Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout loss at Colorado.
It appeared as though the Senators were still fighting jet lag after their flight from Denver as the Canucks built a 4-0 lead before the midway point of the game.
“It took a lot of effort and energy to have a successful road trip like we did,” Senators coach Cory Clouston said, adding that’s no excuse for his team’s slow start.
“It’s more mental than anything because if you can come on in the last half and play better than the first half, it’s more mental fatigue than physical fatigue.”
Burrows opened the scoring at 3:14 of the first period and Henrik Sedin doubled that lead at 10:49. Bieksa scored on the power play at 15:23 and the Canucks went into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.
“We have a confident group now and we know we can overcome anything,” Burrows said of the Canucks’ recent run.
“We fell that everybody is chipping in so we’re feeling good about ourselves right now. It’s a lot of hard work and we’re working smart and it’s paying off so we have to keep it going.”
Daniel Sedin scored at 8:35 of the second period before the Senators finally got themselves into the game scoring a pair of goals before the end of the period.
Heatley scored a power-play goal at 12:38 to get the Senators on the scoreboard and Fisher scored at 16:18 to make a game of it.
“We didn’t come out as strong as we wanted to and defensively we made some errors and they capitalized,” Fisher said.
“Once we started to compete and bear down we took over and I thought we played well. Too little too late.” The Senators had the better of the chances in third period outshooting the Canucks 9-7, but Kesler scored into an empty net with 12 seconds to play.
Notes: Canucks forward Mason Raymond played in his 100th NHL game Thursday nightF Henrik Sedin is one goal shy of 100 for his careerThe Canucks play the Maple Leafs in Toronto Saturday nightSenators forward Kelly played in his 300th NHL game Thursday nightF Cody Bass missed his 24th straight game with a shoulder injury while F Chris Neil missed his sixth straight with a calf lacerationThe Senators next game is in a Saturday matinee in Montreal against the Canadiens.
