Canucks 7, Flames 2

By foxsports
Published

Mason Raymond made himself right at home.

From nearby Cochrane, Raymond had his second career hat trick - scoring at even strength, short-handed and on a power play - and added an assist to help the Vancouver Canucks rout the Calgary Flames 7-2 on Wednesday night for their third straight victory. His other hat trick also was in Calgary.

''Maybe it's the home-cooked meal,'' Raymond said. ''It's a lot of fun playing in front of your friends and family. The team played really well and I had some good bounces tonight.''

Daniel Sedin, Jeff Tambellini, Alex Burrows and Dan Hamhuis also scored, and Roberto Luongo made 18 saves. The Canucks improved to 13-7-3 and moved a point ahead of Colorado for the Northwest Division lead.

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault praised the speedy Raymond-Tambellini-Ryan Kesler trio.

''Obviously, (Raymond) had a real, huge night,'' Vigneault said. ''That whole line tonight, it was intimidating as far as their speed and puck control. They made some great plays.''

Alex Tanguay and Tim Jackman scored for Calgary. The Flames have lost five of their last seven at home.

''Seven goals ... that's a pretty good kick at home,'' Calgary coach Brent Sutter said. ''What stings more is the way we handled our third period. That's unacceptable. That tells you that we have a lot of work to do. That is what bothers me more than anything.''

Raymond opened the scoring 2 minutes into the first period, and assisted on Tambellini's goal that made it 2-0 at 8:51. Raymond added a short-handed goal at 1:03 of the third to make it 4-2, and completed the hat trick on a power play with 4:23 remaining. He has seven goals in 23 games this season.

Raymond set a career high with his four-point game.

Sutter showed his frustration in the third period when he put five defenseman - Jay Bouwmeester, Brendan Mikkelson, Robyn Regehr, Anton Babchuk and Cory Sarich - on the ice for the final 30 seconds of a power play.

''We weren't doing anything on it,'' Sutter said. ''I didn't think our forwards were working very hard on it. The first unit went out there and they never spent any time in the offensive zone whatsoever so I thought I'd give the defensemen an opportunity.''

NOTES: It was the first of six meetings between the teams. ... Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa returned after missing a game because of pneumonia.