"I'd like to think that came from a place
of love, but probably not," Schneider said of the jeers,
which followed cheers for a video board introduction at the opening
puck drop. "It was fun, a great environment, great
atmosphere, really nice of them to show that at the start. It was a
nice touch, but once the puck dropped, we had our hands full."
It was the second consecutive game Santorelli won
for the Canucks in overtime. A surprise to even make the team,
Santorelli scored twice, including the overtime winner, in the
comeback win over the Calgary Flames on Sunday. On Tuesday,
Santorelli was on the ice for all three goals against the Devils
after being moved up to play with the Sedin twins.
"Right now, everything I do with him, he
does great things for us," Canucks coach John Tortorella
said.
Jaromir
Jagr scored in the first period, then assisted on Patrik
Elias' goal to make it 2-0 less than eight minutes into the
second period. But Daniel
Sedin started the comeback with a goal of his own before he
assisted on Alexander
Edler's game-tying goal a couple of minutes later, setting up
Garrison's overtime heroics.
"It's just fortunate finding the lanes
there, just so long as I don't slow it down and keep shooting the
puck and create space out there for myself," Garrison said
of his third goal in four games. "We have such good forwards
that do a good job in front of the net down low."
Schneider, who finished with 30 saves in his first
game in Vancouver since the surprising trade that sent him to the
Devils, never saw the high shot from the point with Mike
Santorelli standing in front of him.
"[I] looked one way and next thing you
knew, it was in the net," Schneider said. "[There
was] some traffic, and I didn't work hard enough to find it."
Roberto
Luongo, who was just as surprised to be staying with the Canucks
as Schneider was to leave, finished with 21 saves in the battle with
his good friend and former teammate.
"Obviously, we spent many years together,
so it was nice to battle it out head-to-head," Luongo said.
"Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose. He was able to get a
point for his team. He played extremely well. He was a big reason why
they got it to overtime."
Despite that, Schneider and the winless Devils
were disappointed to blow a lead for a second straight night, falling
to 0-1-3 in the process.
"It's frustrating because we are getting
ones and we need twos," said Schneider, who was watching
Martin Brodeur
play when New Jersey blew a 3-0 third-period lead on the way to a 5-4
shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday. "We've been
in pretty much every game and controlled parts of them, but haven't
been able to put 60 or 65 minutes together. We've got to start
putting W's on the board."
The Canucks have been doing just that, winning
three straight games since a season-opening loss to the San Jose
Sharks. And they've come back from two-goal deficits to win their
last two in overtime.
"You don't want to spot them a 2-0 lead,
but I appreciate how they just stay with it," Tortorella
said. "There was no panic on our bench. We just started
playing a little quicker and a little simpler."
The goalies stole the show early, trading big
saves. Schneider rewarded the early applause from the Rogers Arena
crowd by doing the splits to rob captain Henrik
Sedin on a rebound 6:40 in and throwing out the left skate to
deny Brad
Richardson later in the first period. Not to be outdone, Luongo
made great saves on four of the first five shots he faced, holding
off Jagr with the left pad on a rebound in tight, stretching out to
get the right pad on a Travis
Zajac 2-on-1 chance and denying Dainius
Zubrus on a one-timer from the top of the crease.
"With Louie at the other end, you have to
match him save for save, because he's not going to give you much,"
Schneider said.
Luongo came across quickly from right to left to
squeeze former teammate Steve
Bernier's wide open chance from the left slot with 1:45 left in
the first period, but could only get a piece of Jagr's quick shot
after sprawling in the other direction just 37 seconds later. Playing
back-to-back nights, the 41-year-old Jagr made no mistake from the
right circle, snapping his 683rd career goal under the arm of the
sprawling goalie before he could get across and set.
"I got no problem," Jagr said
with a smile after playing 18 minutes and finishing plus-2 against
the Canucks. "I used to play like that all the time. The
memory is coming back."
Playing his 100th NHL game, Schneider added a
couple more great saves early in the second before Elias extended the
lead on a couple good bounces. The first, off a referee's skate, gave
him the puck on the goal line and the second, off a Canucks player's
skate, deflected the puck in through Luongo's legs. But again, the
Devils couldn't hold the lead.
"We have to stop playing bad with the
lead," Jagr said. "It's not easy to get a lead in
this League and we had it the last two games, 3-0 and 2-0, and we
still get only two [total] points, so we should get more than that."
Asked what needs to change, Jagr responded: "There's
million people got million ideas. I think even if we got the lead, we
should hold the puck a little more when we have the chance, not just
throw it away because we have the lead. That way you give the puck to
dangerous players, but that's what we did. Just have to be a little
smarter I guess."
The Canucks sparked their comeback by doing
something Tortorella wants to see his players do more: throw pucks to
the net. Daniel
Sedin did that and had it go in off a Devils defenseman past a
screened Schneider. And after a pretty passing play to send Edler in
alone, Garrison took the shot that resulted in the game-winning goal
by Santorelli.
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