November has been a great month for Coach Willie Desjardins and his Canucks squad as they win at home once again as they blank the New Jersey Devils by a score of two goals to none.
In the first period, it was the Vancouver Canucks who seemed to be on top early as they were maintaining possession and attacking Cory Schneider's goal early and often. The Devils' goaltender had a flurry of shots to save in a matter of seconds and managed to save all three as the ex-Duck Nick Bonino could not find a way past him. But as the period went on, New Jersey started to grow throughout the opening frame capped off by a Jaromir Jagr's shot was stopped by Ryan Miller.
Alex Burrows scored an easy tip-in goal early in the second period, with just about a little over a minute off of the clock. Nick Bonino won the puck down near the right corner of the offensive zone and passed it quickly up to Kevin Bieksa as he rifled it towards goal. The shot went wide and Burrows was able to tip the puck into the back of the net.
For the rest of the period, however, it was the visitors who were able to get the majority of the shots, but they couldn't get it past Miller who was really on top of his game tonight and has been over the last few weeks, which is one of the main reasons why Vancouver are so high up in the standings at the moment.
The third and final period did not get off to the best of starts as it felt like it was moving a little bit slower than the first 40 minutes. After around five minutes had past Martin Havlat had about the best chance of the period as he received the puck down the right side and fired it towards the net, but Miller was quick to the spot.
The Canucks scored to double their lead with about six minutes left to go in the game as Shawn Matthias beat Schneider one on one after the Devils turned the ball over in their own offensive zone off of a deflected shot. Ryan Stanton was able to hit Matthias on the run as he slotted his shot behind Schneider to put this game well beyond New Jersey's reach.
Vancouver will next play the Columbus Blue Jackets this coming Friday evening. On that same evening, the New Jersey Devils will play hosts to the Detroit Red Wings who have been playing decently as of late but have recently come off of a bad loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs this past week.