Stars 5 - 2 Canucks
Final
  for this game

Struggling Canucks host hungry Stars

Mar 6, 2012 - 4:20 PM (Sports Network) - The Canucks hope they are just getting their slump out of the way before the playoffs.

Vancouver tries to avoid a fourth loss in five games tonight as it takes on the hard-charging Dallas Stars.

The Canucks are coming off just their second regulation loss since Jan. 15 (13-2-5), a 5-3 setback to the Sabres on Saturday. Vancouver has now split the first two contests of a seven-game homestand and trailed by three goals just over five minutes into Saturday's loss.

Roberto Luongo was touched for the early tallies and was pulled after facing only seven shots. Cory Schneider yielded one goal on 17 shots in relief, while David Booth scored twice and former Sabre Zack Kassian added a late goal.

"It was a bad start, I've got to be better than that, obviously, for my teammates," said Luongo. "The boys battled hard to try and come back and we played a pretty good match, I'll take responsibility for this one."

With 90 points, the Canucks remain one up on the Blues and Red Wings for the most in the Western Conference, but they now trail the Rangers by one for the NHL lead.

Vancouver is 1-1-2 over its past four games overall and one of those defeats was a 3-2 overtime setback in Dallas on Feb. 26. The loss snapped the Canucks' six-game win streak over the Stars, though they have still won five straight at home in this series.

Michael Ryder, Mike Ribeiro and Loui Eriksson all had the goals in the win over the Canucks, with Eriksson earning the two points for the Stars on his tally at 3:52 of overtime.

Eriksson was one of the heroes in Dallas' most recent game as well. The forward had a short-handed goal and an assist in regulation, then scored one of two shootout goals in a 3-2 win over Calgary on Sunday. Jamie Benn also scored in the tiebreaker and Kari Lehtonen stopped both skaters he faced after making 36 saves through overtime while adding an assist.

Ryder scored a goal to push his point streak to six straight games (5 goals, 2 assists), but more importantly, it helped Dallas record a point in a seventh straight game (6-0-1) and ninth in its last 10 contests (7-1-2).

"Every point is important. You can see the parity out there between the two teams and it's going to come down to that last week so you've got to gather what you can," said Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan.

Dallas also moved into a tie with Phoenix for first place in the Pacific Division and the two clubs are two points up on San Jose and three ahead of Los Angeles in the division race.

The Stars wrap a three-game swing tonight looking for a fifth straight victory on the road.






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