VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Brad May was just happy to contribute.

May scored twice as the Vancouver Canucks moved within five points of a playoff spot with a 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.

"Yeah, it was nice," said May, who has been a healthy scratch from the Vancouver lineup 10 times this season. "Being a scratch hurts and it's not fun. As an individual, you don't want that and you probably don't think you deserve it, but you have to be a good team player first."

Vancouver improved to 8-3-2 since the All-Star break and is five points behind San Jose for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

May has three goals in the last two games after going 15 games without scoring. He went hard to the net and converted a rebound for his second goal to give the Canucks a 3-0 lead with 51.2 seconds left in the first period.

The importance of May's hard work wasn't lost on Vancouver goalie Garth Snow.

"The schedule's so tough," Snow said after stopping 28 shots for his ninth win of the season. "We are playing every other night and we need all 23 guys that are healthy to contribute."

Snow, playing for the first time in the six games, was solid for Vancouver but got some help in the third period.

New Jersey hit the post twice in the opening minute and had a goal disallowed when Sergei Brylin batted the puck in with a high stick.

"There was definitely a couple of posts, but we needed the breaks and we've been getting them," Snow said. "I felt good and it was good getting a couple of shots early. The last two weeks here, we've really picked it up a notch with team defense, not just the defenseman but the forwards being responsible for the center down low and the two other guys at the top."

New Jersey has lost six of eight (2-6-0), has scored 14 goals in those games, and is 1-2-0 on its seven-game road trip.

"We played really well at times. We just didn't play for 60 minutes and you have to be able to play 60 to be able to win in the NHL," Devils coach Robbie Ftorek said. "They really played well in the first period and they made us make some mistakes and they capitalized on them. We're not playing as hard as we have to against these teams. They are in the playoffs and we're still in the regular season."

Patrik Elias and Brendan Morrison scored for New Jersey.

Morrison scored on a second-period power play that ended Vancouver's streak of consecutive penalty kills at 19. Morrison spent most of the night on the Devils' first line in place of Petr Sykora, who missed his second straight game with a viral infection.

Alexander Mogilny scored once and added two assists, giving him 400 career assists. Andrew Cassels also hit a career milestone when he recorded his 500th NHL point with one goal and one assist.

Defenseman Vladimir Malakhov played his first game for New Jersey since being acquired from the Montreal Canadiens on March 1 for Sheldon Souray, Josh DeWolf and a second-round selection in the 2001 Entry Draft.