Canucks fire five past Lundqvist to beat Rangers

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Vancouver Canucks fired five goals past the New York Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist, one of the NHL's top goaltenders, on the way to a 6-3 victory on Wednesday.

Lundqvist, who entered the contest leading all NHL goalies in wins (12) while boasting a 1.92 goals-against average, was pulled from the game just five minutes into the second period.

Alex Burrows led the offensive surge with two goals for the Canucks who started the game with four unanswered goals en route to snapping the Atlantic Division-leading Rangers' (14-6-2) three-game win streak/

"I think we left Hank out to dry," the Rangers' Markus Naslund told reporters, after facing his former team for the first time since signing with New York during the summer.

"He's been our backbone all year, and will be the rest of the year, so it's unfortunate to do that to your goalie."

Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo recorded a season-high 39 saves to upstage Lundqvist in the anticipated matchup of the two standout goalies.

New York tried to put the pressure on Luongo, sending 42 shots his way including 17 in the final period, but it was too little too late as Vancouver improved to 11-6-2 on the year.

Center Kyle Wellwood notched his eighth goal of the season four minutes into the game, Burrows beat Lundqvist with back-to-back goals and Ryan Johnson gave the Canucks a 4-0 lead with his first goal of the season at 2:21 in the second period.

Chris Drury and Aaron Voros scored for New York in the second period, while Ryan Callahan made good on a tip-in to capitalize on one of the Rangers two powerplays in the third period.

Pavol Demitra and Daniel Sedin added the other Canucks goals.

(Reporting by Jahmal Corner; Editing by Peter Rutherford)