Kyle Wellwood finishes off an impressive play for Vancouver's fourth goal on Sunday. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)The Vancouver Canucks overcame a shaky start in their Sunday night homecoming, scoring four goals in eight minutes en route to defeating the Florida Panthers.
Pavol Demitra scored two goals for the Canucks during a second period romp in the 5-3 win. Kyle Wellwood finished off a terrific passing play for a power-play marker, while Ryan Kesler converted one of Vancouver's three golden opportunities while short handed.
For the second time in four games, Darcy Hordichuk scored the club's first goal of the game.
"It was really Hordichuk's goal that got us going," said Demitra. "That was huge for us. You could tell the momentum had shifted after he scored that goal, everything started to go our way. It was nice to see a guy like that score a goal, and that was the nicest goal we scored tonight."
Rookie netminder Cory Schneider bounced back from the early game woes to post 18 saves. Vancouver (17-11-3) moved back atop the Northwest Division as a result.
The Canucks went 2-4-1 on their lengthy road trip, ending it in dismal fashion with a 3-0 loss in Edmonton on Saturday.
Coach Alain Vigneault complained that the club was "out-everythinged" against the Oilers and it looked like there might be a repeat performance early on against the Panthers.
Defencemen Nick Boynton and Jay Bouwmeester staked Florida to a 2-0 lead just 6:50 into the game. After Vancouver potted the next five, Michael Frolik scored in the third to make things interesting.
Florida (14-13-3) leaves Canada on a down note, but their trip was profitable. The Panthers fought back three times from deficits to beat Ottawa in overtime, shut out Edmonton, and prevailed in a shootout over Calgary.
As a result, they've moved up the standings into ninth place in the Eastern Conference.
Stephen Weiss, who factored in each of the three previous wins, left the game on Sunday with an undisclosed upper-body injury.
Craig Anderson, who posted a 41-save shutout against the Oilers, was not up to that standard. Anderson stopped 25 of 30 shots.
"It was just one of those nights," said Anderson. "We lost the momentum there in the second and they got some good chances off some bad bounces. It was a tough night.
"It was one of those periods where nothing went our way. There was a snowball effect and we needed a big save from myself and didn't get it. We needed something like that to change the momentum and didn't get it."
Boynton marked just over four minutes into the game from the point, with Schneider screened on the play.
The Canucks goalie made a strong save on Ville Peltonen not long after, but none of his teammates picked up Bouwmeester trailing on the play to deposit the rebound.
Schneider made a left pad save on Michal Repik, a key save that came not long before Hordichuk took Kesler's pass to score on Anderson.
Vancouver outshot Florida 18-5 in their big period, which got off to a rocky start.
Canucks defenceman Alex Edler overskated the puck and Shawn Matthias swooped in to skate in on Schneider, who denied the bid.
Defenceman's mistake costly
Florida defenceman Karlus Skrastins committed his own gaffe to set up the tying goal, with Demitra picking up the loose puck near the right post and beating Anderson.
Demitra was getting the bounces, throwing a pass into the slot that hit a couple of players en route to the back of the net at 11:17.
It was the first of consecutive power-play tallies 90 seconds apart. Henrik Sedin dropped the puck to brother Daniel, who flipped it over a Florida stick to a waiting Wellwood at the side of the net.
Wellwood is tied with Daniel Sedin for the team lead with 12 goals.
Just 38 seconds later, with Willie Mitchell in the box for Vancouver, Kesler took off when the puck bounced over Bouwmeester's stick at the Canuck blue line and beat Anderson high with a backhand deke.
Goalie stout
Edler had a chance to make it two short-handed goals on the same power play, but the Florida goalie was stout.
Frolik took advantage in the third of a miscommunication between Schneider and his defence, making the score 5-3 with nearly 14 minutes to go.
Each team had a near-miss before the game's end.
Kesler led a 3-on-1 short-handed play, but his indecisiveness on a course of action killed the chance.
Florida defenceman Bryan McCabe blasted a shot from the point that rang off the post, with the puck lying in the crease before Schneider bent backwards to cover it up.
The Panthers strung together their recent streak without forwards such as Cory Stillman, Nathan Horton, David Booth and Rostislav Olesv. Stillman returned on Sunday after missing 13 games due to a concussion.
The Canucks have three more games in the current homestand, taking on Edmonton again on Wednesday and facing the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m PT).
With files from the Associated Press
