Sedin nets 300th career goal as Canucks down Senators
Milestones don't mean much to Daniel Sedin in November.
Sedin scored his 300th career goal and added an assist to help the Vancouver Canucks defeat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Thursday night.
David Booth, Jason Garrison, Dale Weise and Mike Santorelli also scored for the Canucks, who won for only the second time in nine games. That was of more interest to Sedin than his own stats.
"When you're in the middle of the season you don't think too much about it, but I'm sure after the season or looking back it will be different," Sedin said. "It was nice to help the team (win), that's for sure."
Roberto Luongo made 37 saves for the Canucks, who opened a four-game swing.
"This is a big road trip for us and to start with a win is going to give us a lot of confidence moving forward," Sedin said. "As a team we played pretty good. The (penalty kill) did a good job and the power play got one, too, so overall it was a good game."
Clarke MacArthur and Mika Zibanejad scored for Ottawa. Craig Anderson allowed four goals on 15 shots before being replaced by Robin Lehner, who gave up one goal on 13 shots.
The Senators, who beat Washington 6-4 on Wednesday, dropped to 0-4-1 when playing back-to-back nights.
"We got what we earned," Ottawa coach Paul MacLean said.
Vancouver has won six straight and 10 of the past 11 meetings between the clubs. Ottawa has lost three in a row and six of its last seven home games against the Canucks.
Vancouver took control of the game by scoring four goals in the second before a disappointed crowd of 17,931.
"Quite honestly, I thought we've played better games," Canucks coach John Tortorella said. "It's good to get a win for us. No complaints here. We've lost some games we should have won and I thought we played well enough to win, but we still have a lot of things to work on."
Sedin tied the game at 1 just 31 seconds into the period when he beat Anderson to the far side. Only 45 seconds later, the Canucks grabbed the lead on Booth's second goal of the season.
Booth has had his share of struggles and acknowledged it was nice to contribute offensively.
"I felt good on my skates, so that's the biggest thing," he said. "But it's over now and you've got to start gearing up for Saturday in New York."
Vancouver made it 3-1 with a power-play goal when Garrison was left all alone in front. Ottawa has allowed at least one power-play goal in each of the last seven games.
Midway through the period, Weise picked up Garrison's rebound and beat a sprawled Anderson.
Weise was one of Vancouver's best players and if the Canucks hope to have any long-term success they are going to need secondary scoring.
"This is what you need for good teams to win," Weise said. "We can't rely on the (Sedin) twins every night. Our secondary scoring has to pitch in and it has to be consistent."
Less than 20 seconds after Weise's goal, Anderson's night came to an end.
"We don't play hard enough on the forecheck," MacLean said. "We don't play hard enough coming back. We don't play hard enough defensively. Our goaltenders aren't playing hard enough. We're just not playing hard enough for long enough to have an opportunity to win."
The Senators managed to cut the lead in half when Zibanejad made it 4-2 with just more than a minute remaining in the period.
The Canucks made it 5-2 early in the third when Santorelli took advantage of Jason Spezza's giveaway behind the Ottawa net. Santorelli grabbed the puck, shot and then picked up his own rebound to beat Lehner between the legs.
Ottawa actually got the start it wanted. MacArthur scored his 100th career goal midway through the first to give the Senators a 1-0 lead, but they were never able to capitalize on the momentum.
"It's frustrating," Kyle Turris said. "That lapse we had in the start of the second and then we played pretty well the last half of the second and the third. We've got to execute coming out of our zone and we've got to be more crisp with the puck."
NOTES: D Patrick Wiercioch, D Jared Cowen and LW Matt Kassian were healthy scratches for the Senators. ... The Canucks were without C Jordan Schroeder, who is expected to miss another month with a sprained ankle. C Jeremy Welsh, C Zac Dalpe and D Andrew Alberts were healthy scratches.
