Hot Canucks Pass Another Road Test

The Vancouver Canucks’ consistency on the road is becoming all too common for opponents.

Matt Cooke had two goals and an assist, and the Canucks set a franchise record with their 21st road victory by defeating the Boston Bruins, 6-4, Monday night at Boston.

Vancouver is 6-0-3 in its last nine road games. The Canucks had 20 road victories in 1993-94. They won 19 road games last season.

“We are not trying to impress anybody on the road,” Cooke said. “We know Colorado is on our heels and we can’t afford to let anything slip away no matter where we play.”

Boston extended its winless streak to nine games (0-5-3-1). The Bruins’ last victory came Feb 14 against Florida.

The Canucks led, 3-1, after two periods, but the Bruins tied the score in the third. Glen Murray scored his second goal of the game when his slap shot trickled through Peter Skudra’s pads at 3:25. Jonathan Girard lifted a shot over Skudra only 2:02 later. Boston outshot Vancouver, 13-0, in the first seven minutes of the period.

“We can’t put a full game together,” Murray said. “We have mental breakdowns, turnovers, but there are no excuses.... We just can’t let those things happen.”

Just when things were looking up for the Bruins, Cooke and Todd Bertuzzi scored 1:27 apart to give the Canucks a 5-3 lead.

Detroit 3, Columbus 2 -- Brendan Shanahan scored twice and Pavel Datsyuk assisted on all of Detroit’s goals at Columbus, Ohio, and the Red Wings won their sixth consecutive game.

The streak is the Red Wings’ longest this season and helped them build a four-point lead over St. Louis in the Central Division. The Red Wings stretched their points streak to 10 games (9-0-0-1).

Shanahan’s wrist shot from the left wing midway through the third period ended a 2-2 tie.

Detroit’s Brett Hull scored his 28th goal and 707th of his career, moving him one behind Mike Gartner for fifth place.

Hull has goals in his last four games.

Florida 2, Toronto 1 -- Stephen Weiss had a goal and an assist, and Roberto Luongo just missed a shutout at Toronto.

Ivan Novoseltsev also scored for the Panthers, who ended a four-game winless skid.

Toronto’s Alexander Mogilny spoiled Luongo’s shutout bid with 45 seconds left. Luongo made 31 saves.

The Maple Leafs went 0 for 6 on the power play and have lost three of their last five games. Toronto also couldn’t get a shot on net despite having a two-man advantage late in the first period.

New York Islanders 1, New York Rangers 1 -- Brian Leetch scored for the host Rangers on a rush from one end of the ice to the other late in the third period.

Leetch scored with 7:11 left in regulation with a brilliant streak after Ranger goalie Mike Dunham steered a rebound of Jason Blake’s shot to his top defenseman. Leetch skated up ice, stick-handled around defenseman Mattias Timander in the slot, and backhanded a shot over the glove of Garth Snow to tie the score.