VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- The Vancouver Canucks were the only ones at GM Place happy to not see their former star Pavel Bure suit up for the Florida Panthers on Friday night.

While many of the 17,055 fans came out to boo Bure's return to Vancouver, the Canucks were breathing a sigh of relief after hanging on for a 3-2 victory.

	Vancouver's Peter Schaefer made sure Todd Simpson got a good view of the glass at GM Place.

"People wanted to see him play. It's a shame that he didn't get to play, but for us, thank goodness," said Brad May, who scored the go-ahead goal, breaking a 2-2 tie late in the second period.

"He's definitely a threat every time he's on the ice," May said. "There's no question that when we heard he wasn't playing, it was somewhat of a relief. But they've got a great skilled team and we just had to shut down their other guys."

Bure, who missed five games earlier this season with a groin injury, will be sidelined at least two weeks after X-rays Thursday showed he had broken the little finger on his left hand.

The game was to be Bure's first public appearance in Vancouver since the end of the 1997-98 season. That summer, Bure refused to play for the Canucks. He was traded to Florida in a seven-player deal Jan. 17.

Instead, everyone will have to wait, as the clubs don't meet again this season.

Alexander Mogilny and Mark Messier also scored for the Canucks, who are 4-1-1 in their last six games. Corey Schwab stopped 23 shots to earn his second straight victory since being acquired in a deal to bolster the Canucks injured goalie ranks.

Oleg Kvasha and Ray Whitney scored power-play goals for the Panthers, who are winless in their last four games (0-3-1) and have gone 0-5-1 in their last six road games.

Panthers coach Terry Murray said Bure's loss was just another blow to his injury-riddled squad, which was also without Peter Worrell (sprained MCL), Cam Stewart (concussion), Lance Pitlick (fractured hand), and Chris Wells and Bret Hedican who continued to serve out their suspensions for incidents that occurred in last weekend's game in Ottawa.

"It's not one player. We've got six guys who are out of the lineup right now. When you put it all together, it (Bure's injury) is a big loss," Murray said. "It gives the opposition an opportunity to expose us at different times."

After Mogilny and Messier staked the Canucks to a 2-0 lead by the 1:17 mark of the second period, the Panthers tied it on power-play goals by Kvasha and Whitney.

May, however, put the Canucks ahead for good, scoring with 1:55 left in the second period. Following Dave Scatchard's shot, May outmuscled two defenders in front of the Florida net and jammed the rebound beneath Sean Burke's pad.

Outshot 13-7 in the final 20 minutes, the Panthers appeared to run out of gas.

Their best scoring chance came with about 80 seconds left in regulation when Schwab got a piece of a shot and Canucks defenseman Greg Hawgood batted the puck away out of mid-air before it bounced into the open net.

The Panthers are 2-4 this season without Bure, who was injured in Wednesday's 2-2 tie at Edmonton.

Mogilny, who scored his sixth goal and earned his team-leading 14th point, said it didn't matter whether Bure played. The most important thing for the Canucks, he said, was maintaining momentum after a six-day break between games.

"We won the game. It's a big deal for us. We needed these two points," Mogilny said. "It (Bure's absence) is the fan's loss. But there's nothing you can do about it. It's hockey."