Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Ryan Miller stopped all 30 shots he faced to post his fourth shutout of the season, and the Vancouver Canucks rode an early burst of offense to subdue the Philadelphia Flyers by a 4-0 count on Thursday.
"Felt pretty good. Been able to get some sleep so my energy came back. Just trying to keep everything pretty simple," said Miller who missed two games due to a bout with the flu. "When the puck came loose I was able to get a rebound from the shots. We competed really well on the penalty kill as well."
Nick Bonino, Henrik Sedin, Radim Vrbata and Jannik Hansen lit the lamp for the Canucks, who put the brakes on a three-game skid and picked up their first win on a five-game road trip.
Starter Ray Emery was pulled early in the second after giving up three goals on 12 shots. Rob Zepp finished the contest by permitting one shot by on 10 chances for the Flyers, who were blanked in back-to-back games for the first time since April.
The hosts had the early shot and territorial edge, but the visitors hit the scoreboard first. Bonino made a spin move between the circles against Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto and beat Emery with a shot inside the right post at 6:35.
It was 2-0 at 13:21, only 21 seconds into the Canucks' first advantage when Daniel Sedin fed brother Henrik for an expert mid-air deflection from the left side.
"You know the thing that bothers me about it all is that it is only 1-0 there is a lot of hockey left, you know play and compete and work," noted Flyers head coach Craig Berube. "That is the one thing that you can control, how hard you compete and you know we stopped doing that."
Vancouver needed only 15 seconds to capitalize on their second power-play chance as Vrbata let loose from the left circle at 1:21 of the second, and Zepp was rudely welcomed to the contest on a breakaway score from Hansen only 22 seconds later.
Miller robbed Brayden Schenn from the top of the right circle with a slick glove save with almost 6 1/2 minutes elapsed. He added eight more over the remainder of the period.
"I went hard back to the post. Knowing that if he centered it, I probably would have to recover from the center of the net. He was able to set my edge and I was fortunately able to get a glove on it," Miller explained. "Made a nice play to kind of lean inside go back outside. Had a good strong edge, some bite on the ice and got a good push."
Despite facing 12 Philadelphia shots in the third, Miller was not seriously tested on any.
Game Notes
After failing to hold the Flyers off the scoreboard in any of his previous starts against the club, Miller has recorded shutouts in back-to-back appearances against them -- one with the Blues and one for the Canucks ... Vancouver improved to 14-0-0 this season when scoring at least four times ... The last time the Orange and Black were shut out in back-to-back games: April 1-3, 2014 (1-0 shootout loss at STL and 2-0 loss vs. CLB), while the last time both occurred in regulation was Nov. 28-Dec. 3, 2009 (1-0 at ATL and 3-0 vs. VAN) ... Flyers forward Scott Laughton missed the contest, ruled day-to-day after taking a hard, high hit from Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen on Wednesday.
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