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Canucks rally late to top Ducks in shootout

Dec 9, 2010 - 7:46 AM Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - Jeff Tambellini scored the winner in the shootout after Ryan Kesler netted the equalizer late in regulation to give the Vancouver Canucks a 5-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks.

Tambellini scored in the first round while Joffrey Lupul and Teemu Selanne both missed the net with their attempts. Roberto Luongo then made a glove save on Corey Perry to seal the win.

Kesler finished with two goals and an assist while Tambellini and Daniel Sedin also scored in regulation for the Canucks, who have won five of their last six. Luongo stopped just 16 shots in the win.

Perry and Selanne each had a goal and an assist while Cam Fowler and Lupul both had a goal for the Ducks, who have dropped three of four. Curtis McElhinney stopped 24 shots, but the left the game after getting shaken up on Vancouver's third goal. Jonas Hiller finished the game between the pipes and was charged with the loss after stopping 12-of-13 shots.

Vancouver was down by two, but made it a one-goal game with 8:18 to play. Christian Ehrhoff blasted a shot from the high slot that was stopped, but the rebound sat at the left side and Sedin snapped home the rebound. McElhinney had to be helped off the ice and went to the locker room bleeding.

"Four sets of eyes out there. There are two linesmen that are supposed to make the call out there and that clearly is cut and dried," Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said.

The Canucks then tied the game in the final moments with the goaltender pulled when Kesler banked the puck in off of Hiller from the left side with just 22 seconds to play in regulation.

"We went into that third knowing that we hadn't come back after going into the third when being down, so we knew we wanted to get that one," Kesler said.

Anaheim took the initial lead in the game on Perry's power-play goal at the 4:37 mark of the first period.

However, Vancouver scored twice in just 11 seconds to take the lead.

The first came at the 6:20 mark with Vancouver on the power play as Kesler slipped a disc past McElhinney, and Tambellini made it a 2-1 game moments later on a wrister for his fifth goal of the season.

The Ducks tied the game midway through the second as Todd Marchant left a drop pass at the top of the right circle for Lupul, who snapped a wrister past Luongo.

With just 17 seconds left in the second, the Ducks took a 3-2 lead as Perry sent a pass from the left to the right where Selanne snapped it under the bar for his 10th goal of the year.

Anaheim made it a 4-2 game at the 11:36 mark of the third as Fowler's shot from the high slot went off a body in front and got past Luongo.

Game Notes

Anaheim hosts Calgary on Friday...The Canucks host the Lightning on Saturday...The Ducks took a 4-3 contest over Vancouver in Anaheim on October 13...Anaheim went 2-for-4 on the power play while Vancouver was 2-for-7.