Canucks down streaking Coyotes in SO
Posted February 14, 2012 12:28 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER — Ryan Kesler scored the shootout winner Monday as the Vancouver Canucks continued their bid for the Western Conference lead with a 2-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes.
Kesler got the decisive goal in the sixth round of the shootout when he deked goalie Jason LaBarbera and beat him with a low shot to the stick side.
Cody Hodson, Alex Edler and David Booth also scored in the shootout for the Canucks. Booth also gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead midway through the second period.
Ray Whitney, Gilbert Brule and Mikkel Boedker scored in the shootout for Phoenix before Canuck goalie Roberto Luongo outwaited Boyd Gordon.
Vancouver closed to within two points of the idle Detroit Red Wings atop the West and have a game in hand.
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The Canucks (35-15-6) halted a season-high five-game Phoenix win streak to improve to 7-0-3 in their last 10 games.
It was the eighth time in 10 games that the Canucks were taken beyond 60 minutes by an opponent and their fourth shootout win in seven tries during that span.
The Coyotes (27-21-9) moved three points up on Calgary and Colorado in the battle for the conference’s final playoff spot.
Keith Yandle forced overtime for the Coyotes with 2:06 remaining when Phoenix earned a face-off in the Vancouver zone after an icing call against the Canucks.
The Canucks couldn’t clear and Byron Bitz failed to chip the puck past the Phoenix defenceman who slid the puck inside the post on Luongo’s stick side.
Neither goalie was severely tested during the game as Luongo made 23 saves while LaBarbera stopped 21 for Phoenix.
Booth, who scored in Vancouver’s 5-0 win in Phoenix in November, got the opening goal at 10:40 of the middle frame.
Coyote forward Kyle Chipchura had a puck go off his glove but Booth corralled it at the Coyote blue-line and took it to the net.
The speedy Canuck winger shielded the puck from Yandle as he skated in on LaBarbera and slid it past the goalie and inside the far post while falling to the ice. Kesler earned an assist on the goal.
The Coyotes had opened the scoring in the first eight minutes in each of their last four games but the clubs played a listless first period in which Phoenix outshot the Canucks 9-4.
Vancouver didn’t get a shot on LaBarbera, a native of suburban Burnaby, B.C., until 9:31 of the opening frame even though the Coyotes had to kill back-to-back minor penalties.
Ex-Canuck Taylor Pyatt had the best chance on Luongo who went down to smother his attempt in the goalmouth.
Hodgson stickhandled through the Coyote defence but his shot off a rink-length dash hit LaBarbera.
Early in the second period, Pyatt set up Daymond Langkow in front of Luongo but later took a hard check along the boards from Canuck defenceman Aaron Rome and did not return.
Edler blasted a shot from the high slot on a 3-on-2 short-handed break-in later in the period, but LaBarbera made the save then denied Jannik Hansen on the rebound.
Notes: Phoenix won both meetings here last season for the first time in franchise history … LaBarbera played nine games for Vancouver in 2008-09 … winger Chris Higgins skated with Canuck teammates Monday morning after missing five games because of an adverse reaction to antibiotics prescribed for a bacterial infection … Higgins didn’t play against Phoenix and neither did defenceman Keith Ballard who is suffering from a whiplash injury that’s causing headaches … winger Dale Weise who also remained out of games but was back on the ice after missing two starts since blocking a shot.
