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Canucks aim for club records in Atlanta

Mar 25, 2011 - 2:59 PM (Sports Network) - Few teams, if any, have the 1-2 punch that the Canucks feature with Henrik and Daniel Sedin. The duo's performance this season has Vancouver on the verge of breaking a few club records.

Having already matched franchise single-season marks in points and road wins, the Canucks go for a seventh straight victory as the guest this evening when they visit the Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena.

The Sedin twins were at the forefront of Wednesday's 2-1 victory over Detroit in the battle of the top two teams in the Western Conference. Daniel scored twice and both goals were set up by Henrik as the Northwest Division champs upped their lead over the Red Wings for the top spot in the conference to 10 points with eight games remaining.

The Canucks, who have won eight of their last nine games overall, are also seven points ahead of the Flyers in the race for the Presidents' Trophy, though idle Philadelphia will have two games in hand after tonight.

"When you have confidence and shoot the puck good things happen," said Daniel Sedin, who has eight goals and 16 points over a nine-game point streak. "It was a good road win against a good team here tonight."

Wednesday's victory gave Vancouver 105 points on the season, matching the club record set in 2006-07. The club also matched a team record with 23 road wins and is just one win shy of reaching a franchise record-tying 49 victories for the third time. The Canucks also did so in 2006-07 and last season.

Needless to say, the Sedin twins deserve a lot of the credit. Daniel leads the NHL with 95 points and is third with a career-high 40 goals, while Henrik is right behind his brother with 88 points and is tops in the league with 70 assists. Last year's Hart Trophy winner, Henrik has points in eight of his last nine games, notching 11 assists and 14 points in that span.

Vancouver won the opener of a four-game swing on Wednesday, with Roberto Luongo making 39 saves for his 34th win of the season. He is 10-11-1 with a tie and 2.85 goals-against average in his career versus Atlanta.

Both Mikael Samuelsson (lower body) and Tanner Glass (sore ribs) missed morning skate on Thursday and are questionable for tonight.

While Vancouver is cruising into the playoffs, Atlanta is trying to keep its chances at a postseason spot alive. The Thrashers won for the fifth time in eight games last night with a 2-1 triumph over the Islanders.

Former Islander Rob Schremp scored the game-winner and Andrew Ladd added his team-leading 27th goal of the season. Blake Wheeler assisted on both goals and Chris Mason only needed 14 saves to claim victory.

"I liked the way we played, and I know we can play like that far more often," said Thrashers head coach Craig Ramsay.

The Thrashers, whose previous four victories had all come past regulation, are still seven points behind the eighth-place Sabres with nine games left for both teams.

Atlanta will play its next two games at home and is likely to go with Ondrej Pavelec in net tonight. He faced Vancouver for the first time in his career last season and took a 4-2 loss, making 34 saves while yielding a hat trick to Daniel Sedin.

The NHL's leading scorer has seven goals and three assists in nine career games versus Atlanta.

The Canucks are 6-1-1 with a tie in their last nine versus the Thrashers and 3-0-1 in the past four at Philips Arena.