Canucks 2, Devils 1 NEWARK, N.J. -- Cory Schneider proved on Friday why he's much more than an admirable fill-in for Roberto Luongo.
 
Vancouver's backup goaltender stopped 30 shots, including 10 in the third period, to win his seventh straight start as the Canucks beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Friday night to take over first place in the overall NHL standings.

Aaron Rome and Mason Raymond scored for Vancouver as the surging Canucks snapped the Devils' four-game winning streak and improved to 86 points, one more than Detroit. Both teams have 20 games remaining.

The Canucks improved their League-best road record to 22-10-2. Last season, Vancouver finished as the NHL's finest road team at 27-10-4. Additionally, the Canucks improved to 34-6-1 this season when scoring the first goal of the game -- they've scored an NHL-best 67 first-period goals.
 
Despite arriving in Newark at 3 a.m. ET on Friday following their dramatic 4-3 shootout victory in Detroit on Thursday, the Canucks appeared to have more jump in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Rome gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead when he knocked home a rebound from the bottom of the left circle at 8:44. Defenseman Chris Tanev took the initial shot from the point that was stopped, but the rebound skittered to Rome to Martin Brodeur's right, and he knocked it home.
 
A little over two minutes later, Schneider denied Ilya Kovalchuk off a point-blank rip from the left hash. Schneider, who made eight saves in the first, also turned back Zach Parise off a one-timer from between the circles at 15:43.

The Canucks opened a 2-0 lead 2:07 into the second when Raymond took a pass from David Booth in the right circle and fired a wrist shot that beat Brodeur to the long side, just inside the left post.

The Devils pared the deficit to 2-1 at 11:30 when David Clarkson redirected a pass from Patrik Elias while skating hard down the slot. Clarkson's goal, his 24th of the season, was upheld after video review revealed Clarkson didn't use a distinct kicking motion on the play.