After falling behind a pair of powerplay goals, the Vancouver Canucks shook the week old rust off, roaring back in the third period versus the Avalanche.

"They like me, they REALLY like me!"

To be frank, there wasn’t much to like about the Canucks’ 1st period, turning over the puck regularly in the neutral zone, and being outraced to multiple loose pucks.   The Tanner Glass line, however, made a point of grinding it out, and refusing to relent on the checking, -both fore and body.  Though his hands will take a little while to warm up to handling the puck and one-time opportunities, Jannik Hansen utilized all 21 shifts and 16:11 of ice time.  Steve Bernier, who scored Vancouver’s fourth goal on the powerplay, also punished the Avalanche defense with numerous solid hits.

Luongo tracked this deflection with panache (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

Roberto Luongo finished the night making 22 of 24 stops for a .916 SV%.  He somehow managed to see through a few players screening in front to stop a Darcy Tucker tip in the slot.

Also, with 3:25 remaining in the second period and Vancouver trailing 2-1, he got just enough of a Wojtek Wolski shot to deflect it to the right corner.

Craig Anderson: "We've got to figure out what's wrong.. Once we figure out how to play with the lead, we'll be alright."

Christian Ehrhoff will certainly not forget the night.  The German born defender had an excellent showing, including his first NHL 2 goal performance.   “There were a lot of situations for me where I was able to jump in,” said Ehrhoff, potting 10 goals in his career season with San Jose.  “I felt good and had good legs so I tried to be up there every shift and help the forwards out a little bit.”

He narrowly missed the ‘natural hat trick’ (scoring three straight goals for a team) in the third period when his shot hit the post, a lot of net showing behind Anderson.

The new Swedish-German connection, Edler, Ehrhoff, and Samuelsson (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

The game was Colorado’s fifth loss in it’s last six starts, and they fell to 13-7-3 after rabbiting out in front of the NHL with a record October.  The Canucks meanwhile improved to 12-10, continuing their success on home ice with a record of 8-2.  Furthering their 5 game homestand, they’ll entertain their newfound rival, the Chicago Blackhawks, on Sunday.