Rypien has go-ahead goal in third, Canucks beat Rangers 4-1

Rypien helps Canucks beat Rangers

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Rick Rypien scored the go-ahead goal 8:48 into the third period, the first of three late goals that lifted the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

Mikael Samuelsson scored his second of the game on a power play with 5:57 left and Henrik Sedin added an empty-netter with 1:24 to go for Vancouver. Andrew Raycroft made 22 saves for his third win in four starts since Roberto Luongo sustained a hairline rib fracture.

Ryan Kesler, who was in the penalty box when the Rangers’ Christopher Higgins tied it 6:24 into the third period, had three assists as the Canucks won for the sixth time in eight games despite missing seven injured players.

Henrik Lundqvist, playing his first game in the city where he is expected to backstop Sweden at the 2010 Olympics in February, finished with 26 saves for the Rangers, who have lost six of the last seven after opening the season 7-1-0.

Kesler, who is also expected to be a big part of the Olympics for Team USA, was in the center of the action all night, including a wild scrum that turned up the heat on an otherwise tedious, tight-checking game early in the third period.

Rangers star Marian Gaborik, who had his four-game goal streak snapped, shoved the agitating Kesler with his stick during a line change, touching off a melee in front of the New York bench that featured 10 Rangers and resulted in five 10-minute misconducts. Kesler ended up with the only minor penalty, thought, and Higgins scored his first goal of the season to tie the game.

But after helping kill off Kevin Bieksa’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty right after the Rangers’ goal, Kesler was back on the puck and peeling out of the corner to make a cross-ice feed to a streaking Rypien, who quickly lifted a shot over the shoulder of Lundqvist. Kesler added a third assist when his power-play shot caromed off the end boards and Samuelsson jammed in the loose puck.

Samuelsson opened the scoring with 1:17 left in the first period after Mason Raymond used his speed behind the net to force Rangers defenseman Wade Redden into a soft pass up the boards. Kesler intercepted and quickly fired the puck on net, where Samuelsson snapped the rebound past Lundqvist.

Kesler put another rebound past Lundqvist 6:40 into the second, but it was immediately waved off because it went off his skate as he turned to stop while driving hard to the net, a call that was upheld by a video review.

NOTES: Luongo skated with goaltending consultant Ian Clark the last two days and is expected to join the team on a five-game, 11-day road trip that starts Thursday in Minnesota. … The Rangers haven t won in Vancouver in almost 12 years, but this was only their fifth visit since Wayne Gretzky scored a hat trick in a 6-3 win on Oct. 11, 1997. … Rangers RW Enver Lisin missed the game with a bruised foot and was replaced on the top line with Gaborik and Vinny Prospal by Higgins. … New York Enforcer Donald Brashear, who played five seasons in Vancouver, missed a second-straight game with a lingering arm injury, and remains one game shy of his 1,000th in the NHL.