Canucks hope to keep offense going in home test vs. Wild

After finding their offense smothered earlier in the week, scoring attack that helped get them to the Stanley Cup Finals last spring.

The Canucks hope to keep the offense going this afternoon as they shoot for an eighth straight home victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Vancouver has put up 40 shots in each of its last two games, but only found success in one of those outings. The Canucks offense was frustrated in a 4-0 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday, but bounced back two nights later to rout the Predators, 5-1.

The club made sure not to waste its opportunities versus Nashville, getting first-period goals from Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Dale Weise and Chris Higgins, with Weise notching the first of his NHL career.

"Out of all the games that he's played, I thought tonight was his best one," Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said about Weise.

Daniel Sedin added two assists, Henrik had one helper and Roberto Luongo finished with 25 saves to help Vancouver win for the second time in three games.

"We put together a full 60 [minutes] tonight and that's something we've been working on and wanted to do, and we were throwing a lot of pucks on net and we got rewarded," said Ryan Kesler, who scored in the third period.

The Canucks won four of six over the Wild a season ago, taking all three meetings to run their home winning streak in this series to seven straight. Vancouver has won 13 of the last 18 matchups overall.

The Wild will be looking to build off an improbable 2-1 victory over the Oilers on Thursday. Seemingly on their way to a shutout loss, Dany Heatley instead scored with 1.2 seconds left to force overtime and Matt Cullen had the game-winner in the first round of the shootout.

Niklas Backstrom made 30 saves as Minnesota snapped a two-game slide and has notched a point in four of its last five games (2-1-2).

"Certainly to snatch two points from the jaws of defeat, it was a pretty good feeling," said Wild head coach Mike Yeo. "It was a good feeling on the bench even, through the course of the third period I was really pleased with our guys and their willingness to stick with it and keep battling.

"I was happy to see Dany Heatley get that goal because he was one of those guys at the forefront. It was like he was refusing to lose that game tonight."

The game-tying goal came after Devin Setoguchi fired a shot that hit the outside of the net. Pierre-Marc Bouchard then gathered the disc and made a backhanded pass before Heatley snuck the puck between the legs of Edmonton goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.

"Usually those plays don't really work," said Heatley, whose goal came with Backstrom pulled for an extra attacker. "We had a lot of time in their end, just kind of scrambling and buzzing and finally found a way to put one in."

Heatley's goal was his second of the season and first since Oct. 8, Minnesota's season opener.