Sedin brothers lift Canucks past falling Stars
Daniel Sedin was bloodied and down on the ice for a few minutes.
After he slowly picked himself up off the ground, the Vancouver left wing opted to remain in the game instead of going to the locker room for treatment.
Sedin's twin brother, Henrik, was unimpressed.
"It was nothing," Henrik Sedin said with a straight face. "He's not a baby."
Daniel Sedin scored the go-ahead goal moments after taking a stick in the mouth, Ryan Kesler and Henrik Sedin each had two goals, and the Vancouver Canucks beat the fading Dallas Stars 5-2 Tuesday night.
The Canucks broke a 1-all tie late in the first on Daniel Sedin's 27th goal of the season. It came 1:40 after he was briefly dazed by a high stick from Mark Fistric.
Sedin had a bloody lip, multiple stitches in his mouth and lost a cap that protected one of his teeth. He also had the game-winning goal to solidify Vancouver's standing in the Western Conference.
"I got hit by the high stick," Sedin said. "But it was nice to score on the power play. We got the lead and that was huge."
Vancouver is 17-4-1 over its past 22 games and has 87 points to surge into a tie for fourth place in the West with Chicago.
Roberto Luongo stopped 35 shots to help the Canucks snap a four-game road losing streak.
"It was a gritty game and we found a way to get goals," Luongo said. "Sometimes you're not going to get a picture-perfect goal, but you find a way to win."
Dallas lost its fourth straight and has slipped four points behind Nashville and Anaheim for the final playoff spot in the West.
Brendan Morrison and James Neal scored for the Stars, who are 4-11-1 since Feb. 21, and Marty Turco stopped 17 shots.
"It's disappointing," Morrison said. "We have nine games to go and who knows what can happen. We have to approach the next game like it's the last game of the year."
Henrik Sedin scored early in the second and added an empty-netter in the waning seconds.
Kesler's goal in the first period tied it, and he added another at 2:27 of the third to give Vancouver a 4-1 lead.
"We needed a good team effort to win," Daniel Sedin said.
Fistric was given a four-minute penalty at 3:13 of the first because of the high stick on Sedin.
Sami Salo blasted a shot from the right point that Sedin, who was still bleeding from the shot he took, deflected past Turco. Sedin skated into the dressing room for treatment seconds after giving the Canucks the lead for good.
Sedin was back on the ice for the second period and in time to assist on his brother's goal.
Henrik Sedin tipped in an attempt by Kevin Bieksa at 1:38 of the second, Vancouver's third-power play goal of the game.
The Canucks were 3-for-7 with a man advantage. They scored a pair of power-play goals in beating the Stars 4-2 last Tuesday.
"They have a good power play," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "But we made them look awfully good."
Dallas took a 1-0 lead when Morrison took a pass off the endboards and backhanded a shot past Luongo at 4:44.
Luongo stopped 13 shots in the first and rebounded after giving up four goals before being pulled in a loss to Phoenix on Saturday.
Just seconds after going on their first power play, Kesler scored from the slot to tie the game at 11:06 of the first.
Notes
Dallas outshot Vancouver 37-22. ... Morrison scored his 500th career point. ... Kesler has four goals and six assists over his past seven games.
