Cammalleri scores twice, Devils hold off Canucks

NEWARK (AP) -- Mike Cammalleri scored twice and the New Jersey Devils kept up their good play at home with a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night.

Jordin Tootoo and Patrik Elias also scored, defenseman Adam Larsson had three assists and Cory Schneider had 21 saves against his former teammates to give New Jersey points in 12 of its last 14 games (9-2-3) at the Prudential Center.

Zack Kassian scored both goals for the Canucks, who came close to tying the score in the third period after falling behind 3-0. Radim Vrbata had two good chances and Chris Higgins had a couple of whacks at a loose puck in the crease on a late power play before Cammalleri iced the game with his 20th goal. It was short-handed.

Backup goalie Eddie Lack had 23 saves in seeing his three-game winning streak snapped.

The Devils, who are facing the prospect of missing the playoffs for the third straight season, seemingly broke the game open early in the second period when Tootoo and Cammalleri scored 2:08 apart.

Tootoo pushed the lead to 2-0 less than a minute into the period when he took a pass from Larsson, swept in on the left wing and beat Lack with wrist shot from the dot.

Cammalleri pushed the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal 2:58. The Devils' leading-goal scorer exchanged passes with defenseman Eric Gelinas and ripped a shot past a screened Lack from above the right circle.

Kassian, who got a chance to play with Daniel and Henrik Sedin while Alex Burrows is out, got Vancouver back in the game with goals in close. He tapped in his own rebound at 6:23 of the second period to make it 3-1 and then chipping Henrik Sedin's pass over Schneider's shoulder at 3:04 of the third period.

Cammalleri added his 20th into an empty net shortly after Lack went to the bench with a little more than 2 minutes to play.

In beating the Rangers in a shootout on Thursday, the Vancouver also pulled goaltender Ryan Miller early and Henrik Sedin tied the game with 2:00 left in regulation.

The win snapped the Devils' six-game losing streak against the Canucks, dating to 2009-10.

NOTES: Devils RW Steve Bernier, who was playing in his 200th NHL game, didn't pick up any points in the game but he was on Lack's crease blocking his view on the goals by Elias and Cammalleri. ... Burrows, who scored in the shootout against the Rangers, was scratched after taking part in the pregame skate. ... The Canucks beat New Jersey 2-0 in Vancouver earlier this season. ... This was the second of a five-game road trip for Vancouver. Next stop: the Islanders. ... The Devils are 2-0 on their current six-game homestand. They will face Carolina on Saturday.

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