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Selanne's two goals lift Ducks over Canucks

Mar 12, 2007 - 4:52 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Teemu Selanne made sure the Anaheim Ducks did not lose any important ground in the Pacific Division.

Selanne scored two goals and had an assist as the Ducks posted a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks for their fifth straight win.

Andy McDonald also had two goals and an assist for Anaheim (42-17-11), which has 95 points and maintained its 10-point lead over the Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks, which both won on Sunday.

The Ducks have won the first five of their season-high eight-game homestand and are 7-1-1 in their last nine games. The Canucks are 13-3-2 in their last 18 road contests.

Selanne scored his 40th goal on the power play at 6:01 of the first period when he banged a rebound past goaltender Roberto Luongo on the power play for a 1-0 lead.

The 36-year-old became the first player in NHL history to record consecutive 40-goal seasons past the age of 35. He scored 40 goals in 80 games last year.

"Good for him, he's proving he can still score," Luongo said. "I don't know what else to say about that."

Selanne also gave the Ducks a 4-2 advantage with a power-play goal 6:04 into the third period when he banked a shot from behind the net off defenseman Lukas Krajicek past Luongo.

"I saw the goalie was down and that there were bodies all over the place," Selanne said. "I just wanted to put it on net. You know the old saying, 'Better lucky than good.'"

"On the second power-play goal we gave up, the puck hits our defenseman in the chest and goes in," Luongo said. "That's the way it's going right now on the penalty kill. We've just got to battle through and keep doing our job. We're not getting the bounces, so we've got to work harder."

Anaheim was 2-for-7 on the power play; Vancouver was blanked in its seven opportunities.

The goal was the 533rd of Selanne's career, tying him with Frank Mahovlich for 26th place on the all-time goals list.

McDonald scored his goals just over a minute apart in the first period. He gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead at 15:44 when he took a pass from Chris Kunitz and fired a wrist shot from the slot past Luongo.

"It came right at the end of the power play," McDonald said. "Chris gave me the puck and I had time to put it in."

He capped his fourth multi-goal game of the season and upped the advantage to 3-1 at 16:46m beating Luongo with a backhander from the edge of the crease.

"Teemu made a good play to get the puck to me," McDonald said. "I didn't get all of it, but it still went in."

Anaheim netminder Jean Sebastien-Giguere made 24 saves and extended his winning streak to five games.

Alex Burrows and defenseman Brent Sopel both scored for Vancouver (41-23-5), which had its five-game winning streak snapped. Burrow's tally ended a 29-game goalless drought. Luongo had his four-game winning streak snapped and failed to record his 40th victory, which only 19 goaltenders have accomplished.

Despite the loss, the first-place Canucks have a two-point lead on the Minnesota Wild and own a five-point cushion on the Calgary Flames in the Northwest Division.