Music: {allcanada} Luongo's 28 saves lifts Canucks over Flames

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

{allcanada} Luongo's 28 saves lifts Canucks over Flames

CALGARY, Alberta (AP)—Vancouver defenseman Alexander Edler (notes) scored and added two assists while Roberto Luongo (notes) made 28 saves to help the Canucks rout the Calgary Flames 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Chris Higgins (notes), Alexandre Burrows (notes), Daniel Sedin (notes) and Cody Hodgson (notes) also scored for Vancouver (6-5-1), which kicked off a six-game road trip.

Alex Tanguay (notes) scored the lone goal for Calgary (4-5-1), ruining Luongo's shutout bid with 32 seconds left in the game.

Luongo was coming off a miserable October in which he went 3-3-1 with a 3.54 goals-against average and a meager .869 save percentage.

Edler's assists came in the first period as the visitors silenced the Saddledome crowd by scoring a pair of power-play goals in the final 7 minutes to open up a 3-0 lead.

Vancouver opened the scoring 7:57 into the first period when Higgins took a breakaway pass from Jannik Hansen (notes) and cleanly beat Miikka Kiprusoff (notes) with a backhand under the crossbar. It was Higgins' team-leading sixth of the year.

The Canucks made it 2-0 at 13:42 on the power play when Burrows swiped the puck in while sitting near the crease. The goal came at the end of a power play after Calgary successfully killed off a 1:36 two-man advantage in which Burrows put a shot off the goal post.

Vancouver got another power play in the final minute of the period and needed just 14 seconds to convert, as Daniel Sedin scored at 19:41 after being set up by brother Henrik.

Despite getting outshot 12-4 in the second period, Vancouver scored the only two goals to blow open the game.

The Canucks made it 4-0 at 3:47 when Flames defenseman Mark Giordano (notes) left Hodgson uncovered for an easy goal into an empty net after a nice feed from Maxim Lapierre (notes).

Edler scored Vancouver's fifth goal at 11:27 with a slapshot from the blue-line with Hodgson screening Kiprusoff.

Edler has 12 points on the season, which ranks him third amongst NHL defensemen behind co-leaders Erik Karlsson (notes) from Ottawa and Tampa Bay's Marc-Andre Bergeron (notes).

Vancouver improved to 10-0-2 against the Flames since last losing in regulation to Calgary on Oct. 16, 2009. That includes five straight victories in Calgary by a combined score of 24-8.

Luongo improves his career mark against Calgary to 21-10-3.

Calgary was 0-for-5 on the power play to fall to 2-for-27 in its last seven games. The Canucks were 2-for-6.

It was the finale of a season-long six-game homestand for Calgary. The Flames finished 3-2-1 and now head out on a three-game road trip that begins Thursday night in Detroit.

Notes: It was Sedin's 254th career goal, tying him with Pavel Bure for fourth on the Canucks all-time list. … Calgary C Matt Stajan (notes) was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch the previous two games. … Calgary LW Curtis Glencross (notes) played in career game No. 300. … The Flames began a stretch of seven games in 12 nights.