Vancouver Canucks 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 0 FINAL

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ The Moose has found a home in Vancouver.

Johan Hedberg _ known for the moose painted on the mask he wore as a rookie in Pittsburgh _ stopped 32 shots for his second consecutive shutout to lead the Canucks to a 4-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

``Every game you get to play, you get more and more used to playing in game situations,'' said Hedberg, who has been solid in limited action as a backup to goaltender Dan Cloutier. ``Right now it's fun to play hockey.''

Markus Naslund had a goal and an assist and Todd Bertuzzi added two assists for the Canucks, who also got goals from Mattias Ohlund, Matt Cooke and Tyler Bouck.

Hedberg earned the ninth shutout of his career. He had 31 saves in his last start, a 2-0 win over St. Louis a week earlier.

``It's pretty impressive _ not only the shutout but the way he plays and the way he plays the puck. He controls the game when he plays like this,'' Naslund said.

Vancouver was playing back-to-back nights on the road, after losing 3-1 at Detroit on Friday night.

In the first period, the Canucks looked as if they missed their wakeup call. They didn't have a shot on goal in the opening 11{ minutes.

After taking the first 10 shots, the Blue Jackets were outplayed the rest of the way.

``We should have had two goals early,'' Columbus interim coach Gerard Gallant said. ``We didn't do anything after that.''

Vancouver coach Marc Crawford said of Hedberg: ``He was our best player in the first period _ and we needed him to be.''

The Canucks took a 1-0 lead on their second shot. Naslund had the puck behind the Columbus goal and sent a centering pass to Ohlund, who was alone in the slot. He beat goaltender Marc Denis for his 12th goal.

The Canucks made it 3-0 in the second period _ both goals coming off perfect passes.

First, Daniel Sedin whisked a pass from the right dot to Cooke at the doorstep and all he had to do for his seventh goal was to put his stick down for the jam shot.

Bertuzzi then picked up the puck along the boards and slid a hard pass through the crease, where Naslund poked it in for his 32nd goal.

The Canucks entered the night in second place in the Northwest Division, just three points behind the Colorado Avalanche.

``Colorado's been up there for nine straight years. That should be motivation in itself for our team to come and play hard for the last 14 games,'' Bertuzzi said.

Columbus was on the power play again at the outset of the third period, but this time the Canucks didn't waste their scoring chance. Defenseman Anders Eriksson lost the puck behind his own net to Mike Keane, who sent a centering pass through the slot to Bouck.

Bouck faked a shot, as the Blue Jackets' Nikolai Zherdev slid past him in an attempt at block it, then pounded the puck past Denis for his first goal of the season.

``We needed to have decent goaltending in the first period and we thought we weathered the storm,'' Crawford said. ``I like the way we finished the game. We really had good habits throughout the game. You could see that guys wanted to play well, they knew the importance of the game. That's a sign of a mature team. You recognize you've got to do things right.''

The Blue Jackets had very few scoring chances after the opening 10 minutes. Rick Nash, tied for the NHL lead with 36 goals, hit the side of the net with a redirect with a minute left.

``I had to be sharp early, and from there on we took control of the game,'' Hedberg said.