Roberto Luongo made 38 saves and defenseman Willie Mitchell broke a scoreless tie and the Vancouver Canucks topped the struggling Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 on Thursday night.
Philadelphia was shut out in back-to-back games for the first time since February 2003 and the Flyers have not scored in 160:04 going back to Braydon Coburn's goal late in the first period of a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 27.
The Flyers have lost three straight and six of their past seven.
Mitchell scored at 13:38 of the second period when he picked up a loose puck in front of the Philadelphia net and scooped a backhand over the shoulder of Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher, who finished with 26 saves.
It was Mitchell's third goal of the season and his first in 22 games.
The Canucks won for the fourth time in five games and picked up a second straight convincing win to begin a four-game East Coast trip. The Canucks beat the Devils 5-2 on Wednesday night.
Vancouver added a goal four minutes later. Daniel Sedin's shot was redirected off the back of Alexander Burrows. Christian Ehrhoff finished the scoring with 3:19 left in the game with a slap shot that trickled past Boucher for his seventh goal. Henrik Sedin added two assists.
That was more than enough offense for Luongo. He made a nice save of Arron Asham's tip-in attempt late in the second period and came up big on a power play early in the third period, stopping another chance by Asham and then a slap shot from Chris Pronger.
Copyright 2009  AP News
