Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Brent Burns scored with the man advantage for the Wild, sending the Canucks to their fourth straight loss and a tie for eighth place in the Western Conference with Nashville.
Roberto Luongo was pulled for the second straight game, after giving up two goals in each of the first two periods. Bouchard scored for the first time in six weeks to set the tone in another critical Northwest Division game. Minnesota stretched its lead to three points over the Calgary Flames.
Niklas Backstrom posted his fourth shutout of the season and set a franchise record with 31 victories.
Missing center and alternate captain Brendan Morrison, whose sustained a season-ending knee injury Wednesday in Colorado, the Canucks were overwhelmed.
Luongo, who came from Florida on an early-morning flight after his wife gave birth to their first child, has given up nine goals in two games
- in a total of 45 minutes. Luongo entered the night ranked fourth in the NHL with a .921 save percentage.
The Wild, who host Colorado on Sunday and the Flames on Thursday, were sharp from start to finish. They took advantage of a flurry of turnovers by the Canucks and put pressure on with a strong power play.
Bouchard's slap shot squeezed past a screening Aaron Voros and soared high over Luongo's stick midway through the first period, and an unmarked Burns scored on a blistering slap shot from the crease to make it 3-0 halfway through the middle frame.
Just 8 seconds after a power play expired, Mikko Koivu made a nifty move from behind the end line to fake former teammate Willie Mitchell and poke the puck past Luongo for the second goal. The puck was in the Canucks zone for the entire advantage.
