The sizzling Vancouver Canucks will shoot for a sixth win in a row when they host the Minnesota Wild in Monday's Northwest Division battle at Rogers Arena.
With five consecutive victories, the Canucks are riding their longest winning streak of the season and the club is now 7-1-1 over its last nine contests. Vancouver has won its two most recent games by a combined score of 9-2 and one of those victories came against the Wild.
The Canucks posted a 4-1 decision at Minnesota on Thursday, two days before registering a 5-1 triumph over visiting Calgary. Vancouver has claimed four of five and nine of the last 12 meetings against the Wild
Vancouver rookie Jordan Schroeder scored the first two goals of his NHL career in Saturday's win against the Flames, who scored late in the first period to take a 1-0 lead before the Canucks rattled off five unanswered goals.
Schroeder, the 22nd overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, went scoreless with two assists in his first nine NHL games -- all this season -- before finally getting the monkey off his back on Saturday.
"Excitement. Relief. It's been eight games and it kind of feels like a weight lifted off your shoulders. You want to get that first one so bad," Schroeder said of his first NHL goal.
Alexandre Burrows and Kevin Bieksa each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks. Chris Higgins also lit the lamp and Cory Schneider stopped 33-of-34 shots in the victory.
The win over the Flames was a good way for Vancouver to begin a four-game homestand, which will continue Friday against Dallas before ending Sunday versus St. Louis.
The Canucks are 4-1-1 as the home team in 2013.
The Wild won their first game on the road this season Monday night in Calgary, but Minnesota has had little success recently as the guest in Vancouver. The Wild have lost 10 straight on the road in this series after beating the Canucks 4-3 in overtime on Jan. 31, 2009.
Minnesota improved to 1-3-1 on the road this season with its second straight victory, a 2-1 shootout win over the Flames. Mikko Koivu was credited with the winner in the second round of the shootout, lifting the Wild past Calgary at the Saddledome.
Kyle Brodziak netted a regulation score for the Wild, who lost three in a row before their recent wins over Nashville and Calgary.
"We didn't always make it easy on ourselves, but in order to win you need to do some good things and we did some good things tonight," said Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo.
Niklas Backstrom stopped 23 shots, including Alex Tanguay's last opportunity in the third round to preserve the victory.
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