VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Vancouver Canucks should have known from past experience that the Minnesota Wild wouldn't go away quietly.
Todd Bertuzzi scored twice and rookie Jason King added his eighth goal of the season as the Canucks built an early four-goal lead, then hung on for a 4-3 win Saturday night.
"I don't know what it is about this team, but they never give up," goalie Dan Cloutier said. "Give them credit. They battle to the end."
Minnesota overcame a 3-1 series deficit to knock Vancouver out in the second round of last season's playoffs, sealing the victory despite falling behind 2-0 on the road in the deciding seventh game.
For a while it appeared the Wild might muster another comeback against the Canucks on Saturday.
Marian Gaborik scored his first goal since ending a contract holdout last week, and Pascal Dupuis and Alexander Daigle also had goals for the Wild, who lost for the first time in six games.
"We've played a lot of good games against them," Gaborik said. "We came back and we played a strong game. I think we can be very satisfied with our effort."
Matt Cooke also scored for the Canucks, who have won six of seven and are 7-0-1 in eight home games.
Vancouver jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Dupuis and Gaborik scored less than a minute apart late in the second period. Daigle made it 4-3 with 5:43 left to play, but it wasn't enough for a Wild team playing for the second straight night.
"They got a lot of breaks in the first period and 4-0 is hard to come back," Gaborik added.
Bertuzzi opened the scoring midway through the first, beating Manny Fernandez with a wraparound.
King, the NHL's leading scorer among rookies, scored for the fifth straight game two minutes later after a pretty passing play between twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin left him alone in front of an empty net.
Bertuzzi added his second on a power-play deflection with 7.6 seconds left in the first period, ending Fernandez's night after making just five saves.
"We're a little disappointed we let them come back," Bertuzzi said. "The top teams get the game out of reach so teams can't find a way back in."
Dwayne Roloson, who shut out Calgary 3-0 on Friday night, took over in goal to start the second period, but Cooke beat him from close range at 11:34.
"The four goals came quickly and we kind of thought it might be an easy night and obviously they'll jump on you if you start thinking that," Canucks captain Markus Naslund said.
Cloutier, facing the Wild for the first time since giving up 16 goals in the final three games of last year's second-round playoff loss to Minnesota, robbed Gaborik on a breakaway five minutes into the second.
But Dupuis started the comeback by banging in a rebound at 14:54, and Gaborik, who was scoreless in his first two games, whistled a long shot in off Cloutier's glove 48 seconds later.
"The second goal gave them the life and it was a bad goal," Vancouver coach Marc Crawford said. "Sure we made it interesting at the end, but we didn't break and that's a good sign."
Minnesota failed to convert three straight power plays in the third period before Daigle scored on a one-timer from the slot shortly after missing the net on a breakaway.
Roloson made 18 saves, including Daniel Sedin's shot on a breakaway with 2:44 left.
Notes
- Vancouver LW Brad May left after fighting Brad Brown twice in the first period and did not return.
- Canucks LW Magnus Arvedson missed the game with a sore groin, but expects to be ready for the rematch in Minnesota on Tuesday.
- Vancouver recalled C Fedor Fedorov, the younger brother of Anaheim's Sergei Fedorov, from Manitoba of the AHL, but he didn't play.
- Wild RW Sergei Zholtok returned after missing seven games with flulike symptoms, and 19-year-old C Pierre-Marc Bouchard was scratched from the lineup for the first time this season.
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