Curtis Sanford spent his Vancouver Canucks debut bailing out his new teammates as they failed to generate a shot on goal for more than half the game.

The former St. Louis goaltender made 35 saves and Ryan Kesler paced the Canucks attack with two goals in a 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets to kick off a four-game road trip Sunday.

Canucks goaltender Curtis Sanford denies Columbus' Gilbert Brule, one of his 35 saves on Sunday.
(Jay LaPrete/Associated Press)

"I don't think we should have won this game tonight the way we played," said Kesler. "They didn't capitalize on some of their opportunities in the second [period] and we capitalized on our few. That was the outcome."

Vancouver led 2-1 entering the third period and Sanford stopped all 12 shots he faced in the frame for his first victory since April 2 against Dallas.

The Canucks picked up their third road win in as many starts despite not registering a shot for 30 minutes, 55 seconds. They were outshot 20-0 during one lengthy span and 14-0 in the second period.

"It was a barrage out there," Sanford said. "That's what happens when you kill penalties for a whole period. It was nice to come in after the second with the lead still.

"We knew we were still in a good situation. It was just up to us to go out in the third period, play our game and just get back to what makes us successful."

Sanford, playing in relief of Roberto Luongo, had given up four goals in just 39 minutes in his only appearance this season. But he made a number of nice glove saves on the Blue Jackets.

The only shot to beat Sanford came off the stick of Rick Nash, who buried his own rebound early in the second period on a Columbus 5-on-3 power play to extend his goals streak to three games.

Canucks penalty-killers were otherwise strong as the Blue Jackets failed to convert on nine other chances.

"When it's 26-6 in shots after two periods and you're down 2-1, it's pretty obvious," Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "Our work and our determination gave us the opportunity to go on the power play a lot today and we didn't take advantage of it."

Vancouver nursed a one-goal lead until 8:51 of the third period, when captain Markus Naslund notched his third goal of the season.

Skating toward the corner, an uncovered Naslund cut in across the ice and snapped a shot past Pascal Leclaire to make it 3-1.

Kesler then scored his second of the game, firing a short-handed, empty-net goal with 96 seconds left after Columbus pulled its goaltender for a two-man advantage.

"We got a great performance by Ryan Kesler tonight," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "He played one of his best games since I've been here with the Canucks. Hopefully we've got him on the right track."

Defenceman Kevin Bieksa also scored for the Canucks, who improved to 4-4-0 with their first win in three games.

Kesler extended his points streak to three games when he opened the scoring at 5:39 of the first period on a wrist shot from the left circle. The goal also snapped Leclaire's scoreless streak on home ice at 156 minutes, one second, dating back to last season.

Leclaire entered the game with three shutouts in his first four starts of 2007-08 and ranked among the NHL leaders in goals-against average (1.26) and save percentage (.953).

Vancouver continues its road trip Monday against the winless-in-two Carolina Hurricanes in a 4 p.m. PT start.