  Darcy Hordichuk celebrates his first goal this season Thursday with linemate Matt Pettinger, who also got his first of the season later in the game. (REUTERS)
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With a 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild Thursday, Alain Vigneault moved past Harry Neale into second place on the all-time Canucks coaching wins list with 143, just 103 wins behind leader Marc Crawford.
Andrew Raycroft was impressive once again, stopping 27 of 29 shots, including a couple big saves off Petr Sykora and Owen Nolan, to earn his fourth win of the season.
Minnesota's netminder Niklas Backstrom was pulled after two periods, having allowed four goals on 17 shots, and was replaced by backup Josh Harding, who stopped all four shots that he faced.
Darcy Hordichuk scored his first goal of the season on his first shot of the season just under four minutes into the game. The enforcer's last goal came January 4 earlier this calendar year against the Dallas Stars.
Having killed all five penalties against the Wild Thursday, the Canucks (10-7) have now managed to keep the puck out of the net in the past 12 shorthanded situations. They also got their first shorthanded goal of the year with Henrik Sedin's eighth of the season.
In addition to Henrik's goal, the Canucks got contributions from Mason Raymond and Matt Pettinger in the middle frame. Raymond's goal was his third in four games and Pettinger's was his first of the season in only his second game with the team. Kyle Brodziak got both of the goals for the Wild.
Defenceman Kevin Bieksa played his second consecutive game on a forward line after Steve Bernier sat out with the flu. The Canucks were also missing Shane O'Brien who was serving a one-game suspension, while Ryan Johnson returned after he sat out four games with an upper body injury.
The Canucks will look to build on their three-game win streak tonight when they face the Dallas Stars, who lost 4-3 in a shootout against Vancouver earlier this season at GM Place. (5:30 p.m. SNET)
