Canucks Ground Flyers

Roberto Luongo extended his shutout streak to 5 complete periods as the Vancouver Canucks extended the Philadelphia Flyers struggles.

Luongo appears focused even heading into the pregame warmup (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The Flyers reopened their own record books, being shutout in two consecutive games for the first time since 2003.

The offensively deprived team has only four goals in the their last four games.  That funk has led many to believe that head coach John Stevens’ job is on the line.  TSN reports that sources say that Stevens will be fired “if the Flyers do not make immediate progress”.

Long time arch-rival of the Canucks, Chris Pronger, spoke to reporters about the loss.  “Traffic is the only equalizer..  We have to execute, play well, and win hockey games.  Right now we’re not doing any of the three.  If I had the answer, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it.”

Though Luongo had some help in the first and second period from the post, he stopped all 38 Flyers shots for the victory.  Rookie James van Riemsdyk hit the iron 8 minutes in, but that was as close as the Flyers would get to beating Luongo.

“It was one of those nights where you feel like the puck is just hitting you,” said Luongo, who was busiest in the third with 15 saves.  “I didn’t even see some of them and they ended up hitting me in the arm.”

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The game remained scoreless until Willie Mitchell netted his 3rd of the season at the 13:38 mark of the second period.  Luongo, who has been a little playful with the media lately, added:  “I get scared when he wanders off near the other teams’ net, but he did a good job.”  Mitchell’s last goal was 22 games prior.

The Sedin twins again made their mark on the road, with Daniel Sedin firing a shot that deflected off Alex Burrows’ back 4 minutes later.  Henrik Sedin added two assists, later setting up Christian Ehrhoff who blasted a shot that Brian Boucher got 95% of, but trickled under his arm.  Both Sedins finished the night with a +2 rating.

Mason Raymond tries to get around Kimmo Timonen (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

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The Canucks can now do no worse than .500 on their current 4 game road trip with the win.

They continue on Saturday in Raleigh, Carolina against the league worst Hurricanes in an early contest.  The game airs locally on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific at 10:00 am.  They’re now 9th in the Western conference, one point ahead of Columbus, and two ahead of Detroit, who has a game in hand.