Luongo blanks Wild as Canucks claim top spot in NHL

Decisively beating the tough Minnesota Wild 3-0, the Vancouver Canucks ascended to the top of the NHL, reclaiming the No. 1 position it last held when it claimed the Presidents' Trophy last April and topped the league by a gaping 10 points.

Minnesota, previously ahead of division rival Vancouver, has lost 10 of its past 11, and could not deliver any palpable gusto against the Canucks. For Vancouver, the stars delivered the thrust of victory. The Sedins were key on both first period goals. Roberto Luongo blanked the Wild in the goaltender's 700th NHL game, stopping 28 shots en route to his second shutout of the season (both against Minnesota).

The Sedins' scoring put the twins in a place they also know well – atop the league's scorers table. Henrik, the top scorer in 2009-10, notched two assists to take the No. 1 spot at 48 points. Daniel, top scorer last season, scored the first goal and assisted on the second to reach 46 points, now tied for second behind his older brother and Philadelphia's Claude Giroux (who missed four games in December due to concussion).

While the Sedins and Luongo remain the team's pillars, the Canucks do not exactly resemble last season's juggernaut, with a somewhat reconstituted look on offence and defence (a stronger D than 2010-11, says Daniel Sedin). But as the team reaches the halfway mark of their 82-game season – other squads such as Boston have several games in hand on the Canucks – Vancouver's campaign after the gutting Stanley Cup final loss to the Bruins has been impressive.

After a typical slow start, Vancouver has charged in its past 20 games, losing only four, to reach 25-13-3, close to last year's 27-8-6.

Vancouver pushed against Minnesota early, outshooting the Wild 16-11 and outhitting them 10-6 in the opening period at home Wednesday night, disabusing the notion the team was somehow weary playing its sixth game in 10 nights. The Canucks first line – the Sedins and Alex Burrows – delivered the goals, even as the trio – and the rest of the Canucks – struggled yet again with the man advantage, their once searing-hot power play gone dead cold the past dozen games.

So it is for Vancouver: even as the team takes No. 1 in the league, it is imperfect, and it is not alone atop the league, as the team was when it started last year's playoffs as the Cup favourite. Boston, which on Wednesday trounced New Jersey 6-1 on the road, has five games in hand on the Canucks and is only two points behind – and if Vancouver thought Tim Thomas was hard to score on in June, the 37-year-old is keeping more pucks out than during last season's Vezina-winning showcase.

A showdown comes Saturday, Boston and Vancouver clash in the teams only meeting this season (until, possibly, a June rematch). The venue is the Boston Garden, where Vancouver died in three games in the Cup final, blowing 2-0 and 3-2 series leads before failing in Game 7 at home.

There was no conquering sense of ascension at Rogers Arena Wednesday morning, before the Wild match and after the Canucks conducted offensive drills at a practice, trying to sharpen its power play (whose success rate still leads the NHL but has plummeted to about 24 per cent from more than 30).

"We're at the same point we are every year after 40-some-odd games," coach Alain Vigneault said. "We're a work in progress, we're trying to improve our game."

Vancouver maintained control of the Wild through the second period, with Minnesota struggling to find any offensive fire. The Wild led the Canucks in the Northwest Division for some weeks but suffered an injury-plagued skid and now ranks second-last in the NHL in goals per game, averaging fewer than 2.3 tallies an outing.

When the Wild were shutout 4-0 in Vancouver on Dec. 19, the team was missing several forwards. On Wednesday night, they were a more full contingent, with the return of key winger Devin Setoguchi, but no real impact was felt. On a mid-second power play, the Wild did little. The one tantalizing chance, among Minnesota's best of the game, a Cal Clutterbuck shot from a tough angle, was neatly gloved by Luongo.

Luongo, in his 700th game, remains without the most important victory in any career, the Cup. Whether he starts in Boston on Saturday – where he played badly in June - wasn't known as the final buzzer sounded Wednesday night.

"It kind of feels weird," 32-year-old Luongo said of the career milestone after morning practice. "It doesn't feel like I've played that many games. But I've been in the league a long time. Yeah, it's fun – and hopefully there'll be many more."