Canucks 4, Wild 1
Jannik Hansen and Mikael Samuelsson scored nearly seven minutes apart in the second period and Cory Schneider turned aside 28 shots as the visiting Vancouver Canucks recorded a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday in a battle of Northwest Division rivals.
Manny Malhotra and Ryan Kesler collected a goal and an assist apiece for league-leading Vancouver (37-12-9), which has won eight of its last 10 games. The Canucks now lead the Wild by 18 points to mark the largest margin between first- and second-place teams in any of the six divisions.
With Vancouver playing on back-to-back nights, Schneider spelled Roberto Luongo in this one to improve to 10-3-2 on the season. The 26th overall pick of the 2004 draft, Schneider had dropped three of his last four games prior to Tuesday's contest.
Hansen scored to snap a tie with 7:11 left in the second period after cleaning up Malhotra's rebound and tucking the puck past Niklas Backstrom for his eighth of the season.
Cal Clutterbuck netted his fourth tally in three games for his team-leading 18th goal of the season for Minnesota (30-21-5), which saw its three-game winning streak come to an end.
Backstrom stopped just 10 of 13 shots to suffer his second loss in five starts.