While the Vancouver Canucks remain focused on securing home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, the Atlanta Thrashers are simply trying to keep their faint postseason hopes alive.
The Canucks look to move closer to accomplishing that goal while trying to extend their season-high road winning streak to seven games Friday night against the Thrashers.
After its seven-game winning streak was snapped with a 3-1 home loss to Phoenix on Friday, Vancouver (48-17-9) opened a four-game trip with a 2-1 win at Detroit on Wednesday.
With 105 points, the Western Conference-leading Canucks have a 10-point lead over the Red Wings with eight games remaining. Vancouver also has a seven-point lead over East-best Philadelphia for home-ice throughout the playoffs.
"It's good, for sure,'' said forward Henrik Sedin, who has three goals and 11 assists over the last nine games. "I think we all know math a little. It's going to be tough for the other teams to catch up.''
A turnaround on the road from last season has been a big reason for the Canucks' success in 2010-11. Vancouver is 23-9-4 away from home after going 19-20-2 in 2009-10.
The Canucks, who have not won seven straight away from home since an eight-game run from Dec. 20, 2003-Jan. 13, 2004, are 3-1-1 all-time at Philips Arena.
Vancouver is 7 for 22 on the power play over the last six road games. One of Daniel Sedin's two goals versus the Red Wings came with the man advantage.
Looking to follow his twin brother, Henrik, as league MVP, Daniel Sedin leads the NHL with 95 points, and has eight goals with eight assists during a nine-game points streak.
"Henrik's doing most of the talking,'' said Daniel Sedin, who returned to action two days after his wife gave birth to their third child. "He's been pumping me up.''
Daniel Sedin has five goals and two assists in his last three games against Atlanta. That included a hat trick in the Canucks' 4-2 home win in the teams' most recent meeting Dec, 10, 2009.
Henrik Sedin, who assisted on both of his brother's goals Wednesday, has two and three assists his last two games versus Atlanta.
Roberto Luongo, who made 39 saves at Detroit and has a 1.98 goals-against average during a four-game road winning streak, snapped a five-game road skid at Atlanta in Vancouver's 2-1 win on Feb. 7, 2008.
Eleventh in the East and seven points behind Buffalo for the eighth and final playoff spot, the Thrashers (31-30-12) need to string some wins together and play better than they already have the final nine games.
They can start by building on a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders on Thursday. Andrew Ladd scored his team-leading and career-high 27th goal as Atlanta won for the fifth time in eight games.
"We were focusing on pressure all week,'' Thrashers winger Chris Thorburn said. "We have to keep showing up like the way we did."
Ladd, the only Thrasher with at least 20 goals, had gone without a point the previous three games.
