Canucks skate to easy win over Oilers

Subject: Canucks skate to easy win over Oilers Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:59 pm

Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider makes a big stop on Edmonton Oilers' Ales Hemsky at Rogers Arena en route to a 6-1 Canucks win.

Photograph by: Steve Bosch, PNG

They
say you can't win them all, but the Vancouver Canucks are certainly
putting that theory to the test. So is goalie Cory Schneider. The
Canucks ran their winning streak to eight games and Schneider is now
unbeaten in regulation in 10 starts after Vancouver skated to a decisive
6-1 decision Friday night over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Arena. The Canucks say eight is not enough. Nine would be nice, especially coming against tonight's opponent, the Detroit Red Wings. It
will be a Western Conference showdown tonight at Rogers Arena and now
that the Canucks have dispatched the Calgary Flames and Oilers. they'd
love to finish off their three-game homestand in style with a win over
the Wings. "It will be fun," said Daniel Sedin, who had two goals
and an assist in Friday night's win. "Every year Detroit is a great
team. It was big for us winning these two games against Calgary and
Edmonton. We didn't want to look past these two games and now we can
focus on tomorrow." The Wings enter Saturday's game two points behind the Canucks, who have a game in hand on Detroit. "It's
a team that wants to play some offence, too," Daniel said of the Wings.
"They are really good defensively, but they are not afraid to attack
and that can make for a really good game." The Canucks played a really good game against the Oilers as they rode their top three offensive guns to an easy win. Captain
Henrik Sedin had three assists and Ryan Kesler picked up his second
career hat trick as the Canucks thoroughly outclassed a young Oiler team
that hung tough for only one period before Vancouver took over the
game. "We played well tonight," Kesler said. "From the puck drop
we were pretty good. We established most of the play tonight and Cory
played an excellent game for us." Kesler's hat trick leaves him
with 23 goals this season, setting up an interesting battle with Daniel
Sedin, whose pair Friday left him with 24. Kesler insists there is no rivalry. "It's
good competition, but he is obviously a pure goal-scorer so there is no
way I will be able to keep up with him," said a smiling Kesler. Daniel is not so sure. "I
am scoring all of my goals within six feet and he can score a lot from
the blue line," Daniel said. "He has a great shot. He showed that last
year and this year too." The Canucks are now 27-8-5 on the season
and 17-1-2 in their last 20 games. They haven't lost in regulation
since Dec. 12. Schneider hasn't lost in regulation at all. He is now
8-0-2 in his 10 starts this season and tied the franchise record for the
longest string of starts without a regulation-time loss. Kirk McLean,
Dan Cloutier, Cesare Maniago and Richard Brodeur also all went
undefeated in 10 games during their time in Vancouver. The first
period was scoreless, but Daniel finished off a give-and-go with Henrik
30 seconds into the second to make it 1-0. Just over a minute later,
Kesler put the Canucks up by two with a wrist shot from the slot that
hit the glove of Edmonton goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, bounced high into
the air and into the net. Daniel made it 3-0 at 6:36 of the
second. He picked a long clearing pass from linemate Alex Burrows out of
the air with his glove hand in the neutral zone, passed the puck to
Henrik who gave it right back to his brother. Daniel then beat
Khabibulin with a backhand from in close. "That wasn't the nicest
pass," Burrows said of his long bomb. "Those two saucers afterwards
were the nicest plays. They played a great game tonight." The
Sedins are now tied for third in the NHL scoring race with 53 points.
They are both on pace for 100-point seasons and Daniel is on track for
50 goals. The Oilers got their goal with less than a second
remaining in the second when Ales Hemsky stuffed the puck under
Schneider during a goalmouth scramble. The play was reviewed and it was
determined the puck had crossed the line with two-tenths of a second
left on the clock. Kesler restored Vancouver's three-goal lead
five minutes into the third period when he tipped in a Dan Hamhuis point
shot. He completed the hat trick at 10:56 during a five-on-three power
play, tipping in a Christian Ehrhoff shot. Defenceman Alex Edler, on the
power play, made it 6-1 at 13:02. Canuck coach Alain Vigneault
had his first-unit power play on the ice late in the game in response to
some chippy play by the Oilers. "If they are going to run around
and be stupid, that is what you have to do," said Henrik Sedin. "They
have to realize if they keep doing it, it is going to be embarrassing. I
think he did the right thing." ICE CHIPS: The win means
Vigneault will behind one of the benches at the All Star Game later this
month in Raleigh, N.C. . .This is Vancouver's longest winning streak
since winning 10 straight in November of 2002. . .Kesler did more than
score goals. He was 14-3 in the faceoff circle. bziemer@vancouversun.com

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