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Kesler lights lamp twice as Canucks double up Wild

Mar 15, 2011 - 6:25 AM Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - Ryan Kesler scored twice to help the Vancouver Canucks take a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild at Rogers Arena.

Daniel Sedin and Raffi Torres each had a goal for the Canucks, who have won their past six games. Roberto Luongo made 33 saves in the win.

Vancouver sits atop the NHL standings with 101 points. It is the third straight season the team has eclipsed the century mark in points.

Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette both had goals for the Wild, who are 0-3-0 on a four-game road trip that wraps up in San Jose on Thursday. Niklas Backstrom stopped 18-of-21 shots in the loss.

"It wasn't a good start for us or Backstrom," said Minnesota head coach Todd Richards. "He had a rough first period, but then he held down the fort and gave us a chance to come back."

Minnesota is on the outside looking in as the team is four points back of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 12 games to play.

Vancouver held a 3-1 heading to the third, but Koivu made it a one-goal game when he backhanded the puck past Luongo from in front at the 4:32 mark.

A high sticking call to Kesler with 2:10 to play saw Minnesota take a man advantage and the team got Backstrom out of the net for the extra attacker, but Kesler sealed the win with the empty-netter in the final moments.

"We got the three goals and we knew they were going to push," said Luongo. "They're a desperate club over there and we were able to weather the storm."

Vancouver scored three times in the first period to take the lead.

The first goal came off the stick of Torres just 1:59 into the game.

Sedin made it a 2-0 game on the power play when he walked down to the left circle and snapped a wrister past Backstrom at the 8:28 mark.

Vancouver then took a 3-0 lead with another power-play goal as Kesler backhanded home a rebound off a Manny Malhotra one-timer with 5:28 to play in the frame.

Minnesota got a goal back with 2:57 to play in the second as Brunette chipped the puck in from the low right side for his 17th goal of the season.

Game Notes

Vancouver hosts Colorado on Wednesday...Vancouver has won three of the five games with Minnesota this season. The two will meet one last time in Vancouver on April 7...Vancouver was 2-for-2 on the power play while Minnesota went 0- for-6.