Vancouver Canucks' Guillaume Desbiens, left, and Minnesota Wild's Clayton Stoner fight during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday October 22, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckDARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
In previous seasons, it would have been blasphemous.
Roberto Luongo just didn't miss consecutive starts on home ice. Not when healthy. Hasn't happened in the goaltender's five-year Vancouver tenure.
But it happened on Friday, and it worked for the Canucks. Vancouver won its third straight game at Rogers Arena, and snapped a two-game skid, with a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild.
Schneider, who made 23 saves, was less than three minutes from his first NHL shutout when Antti Miettinen scored a cosmetic goal. But he wasn't often threatened by an impotent Wild squad that spent most of the evening in its own zone, trying to get the puck.
"A lot [of the shots]were from the outside, ones that I could see," Schneider said. "We seem to be comfortable here at home, and were really buzzing."
Raffi Torres scored 11 minutes into the game, and Ryan Kesler added a second-period goal. That was going to be enough on this night, but the third-period turned into a feel-good affair as two off-season additions got on the board in 2010-11.
Manny Malhotra scored his first two goals as a Canuck, and local boy Jeff Tambellini scored on a breakaway as the home side put some sizzle on the victory.
"That was a good feeling," said Tambellini, who grew up in suburban Vancouver as a Canucks fan because his father, Steve, was a longtime team executive. "I was hoping that it would come sooner than later."
Tambellini said he had "the best job in hockey tonight," playing on a wing with the Sedin twins. The brothers possessed the puck in Minnesota's zone for long stretches, and each finished with an assist. Malhotra finished with three points, while Torres and Jannik Hansen authored two-point games.
But it was Vancouver's airtight defence that produced this win, and it is an encouraging sign for a club that is playing without three of its top six defencemen because of injuries. Over the last two games, Andrew Alberts, Aaron Rome and Jeff Parent have filled in ably, and so has Schneider.
The former first-round pick was making his second start, and third appearance, of the season. That he got the start Friday suggests that head coach Alain Vigneault about using Schneider 20-25 this year, and ensuring Luongo is rested for the playoffs.
Wild goalie Jose Theodore, making his first start for his new team, was under siege. He made 30 saves, but the former Hart Trophy winner would want a couple goals back, particularly Torres's tally from a sharp angle.