Vancouver Canucks own Dallas Stars 5-2 -NHL Update
Vancouver Canucks not only owned Dallas Stars but forced them to fall down in the Western Conference rankings after a dominating 5-2 win on Friday night, March 30, 2012, at the sold-out Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
As Los Angeles Kings won their Friday night matchup against Edmonton Oilers, they moved past Dallas Stars in the Pacific Division rankings to the top spot and overtook the third number position in the Western Conference. Dallas is now seventh in the West
and could struggle to maintain even a playoff place as teams fight for positioning.
It was Vancouver’s fifth straight win while Dallas lost its second straight to Vancouver in their two meetings in the past week so far.
"We've got to kick the losses as quick as we can and move on to the next game," said Dallas’ Steve Ott. "We played all the way to the last game of the year last year to have a playoff spot and we lost it, so we know how crucial moving on to the next game
is for us."
Chris Higgins added Vancouver’s first of the night while Steve Ott tied it in round-two for his 11th of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season.
Sami Salo broke the 1-1 tie at 11:01 on the power play advantage while Andrew Alberts added a second straight at 16:25.
Alex Burrows and Maxim Lapierre broke loose in the third and final period of regulation to give Vancouver a dominating 5-1 lead with less than nine minutes remaining with Jake Dowell scoring the last for Dallas at 17:18.
Vancouver goalie, Cory Schneider, played with great form and succeeded in keeping Dallas out of the net.
"He made some big saves in the second off Loui Eriksson that could have made it 2-1," Stars coach, Glen Gulutzan, said. "You run into that every now and then, goalies win games. I thought it was a pretty even game, but Schneider stood the test."
Vancouver will definitely be aiming for a sixth straight win against Calgary Flames on Saturday while Dallas Stars hope to retake their third spot with four more games remaining on the schedule. They have the next against San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
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