It's too early to name Canada's starting goaltender for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets made a pretty good case for himself Monday night.

While the 21-year-old Mason was making 40 saves to backstop his club to a 5-3 victory over Vancouver, veteran Roberto Luongo, his rival on the Canucks, was sitting on the bench.

Luongo, who signed a US$64-million, 12-year contract extension in the off-season, was yanked in favour of Andrew Raycroft when Columbus forged a 4-1 lead with three goals in three minutes 44 seconds.

His eight-save night ended early in the second period while Mason built on his rookie-of-the-year campaign from last season, when he led the NHL with nine shutouts and finished second in Vezina trophy voting.

Both attended Canada's Olympic orientation camp in Calgary this summer and the early line gave Luongo the edge to be between the pipes at GM Place during the Olympics.

"Every goaltender at that camp has a ton of talent and for myself being the youngest one, it's motivation in itself to be a part of that group and potentially get a berth on that hockey club," Mason said.

"Once the season starts anything can happen so for myself I want to put the right foot forward right now and hopefully all goes well and I'll be named to that team."

He's certainly making a strong case after 32 saves in Columbus's home opener, a 2-1 win over Minnesota.

Luongo, meanwhile, seemed to have already put his disappointing behind him.

"It's the same reaction every time I get pulled," said Luongo, who gave up the quick goals to Kristian Huselius, Rostislav Klesla and Nikita Filatov. "That's the way it is, and that's not a big deal to me."

The Vancouver netminder said the switch to Raycroft produced a momentum change in Vancouver's favour.

"After that, we kind of got going a little bit. Obviously, I didn't deserve to be in there at that point."

Henrik Sedin got the game's first goal but the Blue Jackets killed off 5-on-3 Canuck power play for a one minute 19 seconds, then Antoine Vermette scored with 42 seconds remaining in the first period.

Fedor Tyutin completed the Columbus attack with a late power-play goal as the Jackets have a 2-0 start to the season for the first time in franchise history.

The 0-3 Canucks, the defending Northwest Division champions, are off to their worst start in eight years after losing their home opener.

Defencemen Christian Ehrhoff, with his first goal as a Canuck, and Willie Mitchell, with his first goal in 42 games, were the other Vancouver marksmen.

But Mason was solid when the Canucks peppered him with 30 shots over the final 40 minutes. He stopped Alex Burrows short-handed and Mikael Samuelsson late in the third period.

"He's got to be the best player on the team for us to have a chance for us to go far," Rick Nash, who had three assists, said of Mason.

"He was steady all last year and he's been great in the two games we played this year and that's what we need from him."

Nash, who signed a US$62.4-million, eight-year contract extension last summer, said the Blue Jackets are no longer flying under the radar after making the playoffs last season.

"It's a totally different team," Nash said. "I remember winning on the road was like making the playoffs. Now we win on the road and it's almost standard."

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault praised his club's work ethic but not its ability to bury scoring chances.

"Overall, our guys worked extremely hard," Vigneault said. "Again, we got behind by three goals, but we battled real hard. Their goaltender was real strong tonight."

Centre Ryan Kesler was aware of a smattering of boos when the Canucks left the ice.

"Let 'em," he said. "We're a strong group of guys in here and we have each other's backs. We know Louie's a great goaltender for us, and we weren't there for him tonight."

Columbus winger Jared Boll had to be helped off the ice after his first shift when checked hard along the side boards by Canucks Rick Rypien and Darcy Hordichuk who drew a roughing penalty on the play.

"He is not good, some kind of concussion right now and I'm sure the league will be looking at the hit," said Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock who didn't know whether Boll would be cleared to fly to San Jose. "He had his head smashed into the glass."