VANCOUVER — Dan Hamhuis and Jannik Hansen scored 18 seconds apart late in the first period Saturday as the Vancouver Canucks cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Daniel Sedin, with a goal and an assist, Brad Richardson and Ryan Kesler also scored for the Canucks (1-1-0), who got 21 saves from Roberto Luongo in their home opener. Jason Garrison added a goal into an empty net, while Henrik Sedin picked up three assists as Vancouver rebounded from Thursday’s season-opening 4-1 road loss to the San Jose Sharks in impressive fashion.
Jeff Petry and Boyd Gordon replied for Edmonton (0-2-0). Devan Dubnyk allowed five goals on 31 shots before being replaced in the second period by Jason LaBarbera. The Oilers backup finished with 12 saves.
After the teams exchanged goals in the game’s first four minutes, the Canucks carried the play for the rest of the period, with Hamhuis and Hansen beating Dubnyk in quick succession late to give Vancouver a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Hamhuis made it 2-1 with a shot from just inside the Edmonton blue-line that took a deflection off Petry’s stick with 1:33 left.
The fans at Rogers Arena had barely sat down from celebrating that goal when Hansen, who took the spot of the injured Alexandre Burrows on Vancouver’s top line, beat Dubnyk from the slot to give his team a 3-1 edge at 18:45 as Vancouver closed out the period with a 22-8 advantage on the shot clock.
The Canucks made it 4-1 on the power play at 7:21 of the second on a picture-perfect passing play. Vancouver defenceman Alexander Edler fed Henrik Sedin, who in turn found his brother Daniel with a no-look spin-o-rama pass in front of a helpless Dubnyk.
Canucks head coach John Tortorella has been implementing a new puck-pressure style and Vancouver continued its onslaught at 13:56 when Kesler ripped a shot past Dubnyk from the top of the faceoff circle. That spelled the end of the night for the Edmonton goaltender, who was replaced by LaBarbera.
The move gave the Oilers some life and Gordon made it 5-2 off an odd-man rush at 15:23 but Edmonton still trailed by three after two periods.
Edmonton, which also has a new head coach in Dallas Eakins, had a couple of good chances to cut the deficit further in the third — including shots off the post and crossbar by defenceman Justin Schultz — but couldn’t get any closer.
Garrison then iced it with a short-handed empty-net goal at 18:16 that just dribbled over the line.
The Oilers, who were also playing their second game of the season after dropping their home opener 5-4 to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, got on the board first at 1:58 of the opening period. With the teams playing 4-on-4, Petry beat Luongo five-hole from a sharp angle.
But the lead didn’t last long as Richardson, who joined the Canucks as a free agent from the Los Angeles Kings in the off-season, raced in on a short-handed breakaway and beat Dubnyk between the pads for his first goal with Vancouver to tie the score 1-1 at 3:42.
Notes: Garrison also added an assist. … Burrows is expected to miss a couple of weeks after breaking a bone in his foot blocking a shot in the loss to San Jose. … David Booth took Hansen’s spot on the second line with Kesler and Chris Higgins. … The Oilers were without centres Sam Gagner (broken jaw) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (shoulder surgery). Edmonton expects to have Nugent-Hopkins back for Monday’s home game against the New Jersey Devils. Canucks right-winger Zack Kassian served the fifth game of his eight-game suspension for the hit that broke Gagner’s jaw.
Follow Joshua Clipperton on Twitter at (at)josh–clipperton