Zuccarello scores twice as New York Rangers beat Vancouver Canucks 5-1

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Mats Zuccarello had two goals and Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-1 victory over the slumping Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

Ryan McDonagh, J.T. Miller and Marc Staal also scored for New York (13-10-4), which had lost two of three. Rick Nash and Derick Brassard each had two assists.

Nick Bonino had the only goal for Vancouver, and Ryan Miller made 18 stops.

The Canucks (18-10-2) dropped their fourth consecutive game. It was their first home date since Nov. 25 after going 3-3-1 on a season-long seven-game road trip.

Coach Willie Desjardins said his team looked sluggish during Friday's practice, and that trend carried over into Saturday's first period against the Rangers, who had four odd-man rushes in just over four minutes to break the game open.

After a bad pinch from defenseman Ryan Stanton, Jesper Fast fed McDonagh on a 3-on-1 break for his first of the season at 2:36.

The Rangers then had a 4-on-1 rush that failed to connect before J.T. Miller buried his third of the season on a 2-on-1 break with a nice move to the backhand at 3:19.

Staal made it 4-0 at 7:17 of the second when his first of the season found its way through a screen and past Ryan Miller, who looked especially frustrated and shrugged his shoulders as the Rangers celebrated at Vancouver's blue line.

Zuccarello scored his second of the night and sixth of the season with 2:21 left in the period by tapping home a slick pass from Brassard.

Vancouver finally got on the board when Bonino stopped Lundqvist's shutout bid at 4:20 of the third, wiring a shot over the glove for his eighth of the season and first in 16 games.