VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Being friends with his linemates off the ice is helping Ryan Dzingel be more productive in games.

Dzingel scored a pair of goals and goaltender Craig Anderson stopped 22 shots as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-0 Tuesday night for their first road win of the NHL season.

It was the first two-goal night of Dzingel's young career, and he credited center Derick Brassard and right winger Bobby Ryan with building his confidence.

"I think I would have had more nerves if I wasn't so comfortable with these two guys," said Dzingel, who was picked 204th overall in the 2011 draft and played 30 games for Ottawa last year.

"Just being able to have a friendship with these two guys and knowing the types of players they are, there aren't any nerves when you know how good they are. I just had to play my game."

Dzingel stayed with Ryan when he showed up three weeks early for training camp. He's currently living with Brassard while looking for a house.

Dzingel opened the scoring at 7:38 of the first period after Vancouver turned the puck over during a sloppy line change. Brassard took a shot that Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller stopped, but Dzingel put in the rebound.

The Senators made it 2-0 at 2:12 of the third period after Dzingel took a pretty behind-the-back pass from Ryan and had nothing but net to shoot at.

"That was huge," Dzingel said. "Getting that second one was big. It helped our momentum. We were on our heels a little bit there. We got that one and it turned the tide."

Coach Pierre Dorion said even though Dzingel leads the Senators with four goals, he also has blocked shots, killed penalties and played well defensively.

"At every game he's shown that he wants to be here, that he's ready to survive in the NHL before contributing offensively," Dorion said. "He's getting the results that come with it.

"That's very often a mistake a young guy makes. They come in, they try and impress and they're not reliable, so they don't get ice time and they wonder why they're not staying."

Dzingel said he came to camp with the attitude that just making the team wasn't enough.

"I didn't come to just make the team," he said. "I came to make a difference."

Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the other Ottawa goal into an empty net with 2:19 remaining.

Anderson faced just three shots in the third period but stopped Vancouver's Sven Baertschi on a breakaway to preserve his 34th career shutout.

"We were playing well," he said. "When you are called upon to make a big save, you need to be there. That was kind of the icing on the cake, the nail in the coffin. It took momentum away from them."

The Senators improved to 4-2-0.

The Canucks (4-2-1) lost at home for the first time this season. They are 0-2-1 in their last three games after starting with four consecutive wins.

Scoring has been a problem for Vancouver. The Canucks have managed 14 goals in seven games. It was also the sixth time in seven games the Canucks trailed heading into the third period.

"I felt we got the game where we wanted it in the last half of the second period," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "At the start of the third it wasn't good enough. We turned the puck over, they scored the second goal. After that, it's a battle."

Vancouver coach Willie Desjardins said his team couldn't muster a third-period comeback.

"We were out-chancing them after two and then I don't know if we thought it was going to happen in third because it had happened in the past, but we didn't get off to a good start," he said. "They had three chances in the first two minutes."

Miller, who finished with 25 saves, said Ottawa used its speed to control the game.

"They were hard on the puck," he said. "We had a little bit of trouble getting through the neutral zone. "

NOTES: With Canucks D Chris Tanev day-to-day with a lower-body injury, D Troy Stetcher, an undrafted college free agent, made his first NHL start. ... RW Derek Dorsett (shoulder) and RW Alex Burrows (neck) have been placed on injured reserve. ... LW Jayson Megna was called up from Vancouver's AHL team in Utica and started on a line with C Brendan Gaunce and RW Jake Virtanen. ... D Nikita Tryamkin, who has not dressed this year, has said he'd rather return to Russia than play in the AHL. ... The Senators moved RW Tom Pyatt onto to the top line with C Kyle Turris and LW Mike Hoffman. ... RW Bobby Ryan started on the second line with C Derick Brassard and LW Ryan Dzingel. ... RW Mark Stone moved to the third line with C Jean-Gabriel Pageau and LW Zack Smith. ... Ottawa associate coach Marc Crawford was Vancouver's head coach for eight years.