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Kesler's hat trick keeps Vancouver winning

Jan 8, 2011 - 7:15 AM Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - Ryan Kesler notched his second career hat trick to power the red-hot Vancouver Canucks to a 6-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Arena.

Daniel Sedin registered two goals and one assist to reach 600 career points, while his twin brother, Henrik, collected three assists for the Canucks, who extended their winning streak to eight games.

"We played well from the puck drop on," said Kesler. "Helping the team win, and for me personally, I'm pretty happy with the game. We're on a roll and we have to keep it going."

Vancouver is 13-0-2 since their last regulation loss on December 5 and leads the NHL with 59 points.

Cory Schneider made 23 saves to improve to 8-0-2 as Roberto Luongo's backup.

Ales Hemsky had the lone goal for Edmonton, which halted a seven-game losing streak with Thursday's 2-1 win over the New York Islanders. Nikolai Khabibulin was beaten six times on 34 shots.

"After the first period we were in a good spot," said Edmonton forward Sam Gagner. "There were times we were playing well, but we have to play better offensively if we want to win games."

Daniel Sedin converted a pass from his brother to put Vancouver on the board 30 seconds into the second period. Kesler made it 2-0 at the 2:04 mark of the middle stanza before Daniel struck again a little over four minutes later.

Hemsky slipped the puck behind Schneider before the second period horn sounded.

Kesler scored on a pair of deflections, the latter coming on a power play, in the third period to make it 5-1. Alexander Edler capped the scoring with a power-play goal at 13:02.

Game Notes

The Canucks hadn't put together an eight-game winning streak since a 10-game run from November 9-30, 2002...Vancouver improved to 11-1-0 against the Northwest Division this season...Vancouver forward Alexandre Burrows played in his 400th career game.