• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Daniel Sedin powers Canucks past Stars

Dec 21, 2007 - 7:11 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- Daniel Sedin scored two third-period goals - including the eventual game-winner midway through the session - as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Dallas Stars, 3-2, on Thursday.

With Vancouver leading, 2-1, with 10:05 remaining in the third period, Sedin corralled a rebound off a shot from Mattias Ohlund and slid it past goaltender Marty Turco for his 14th goal of the season.

"I was guilty," said Stars' captain Brendan Morrow on taking a holding penalty that gave Sedin the opportunity to score the game-winner on a 5-on-3. "That's a penalty. It was a bad play by me and it ended up costing us a couple of points."

"The first two (periods), we didn't create as many scoring chances as we would have liked but we had a lot of puck possession down deep and I think it paid off in the third," Sedin said.

Antti Miettinen halved the deficit over two minutes later, but the Stars weren't able to get another puck past netminder Roberto Luongo, who finished with 33 saves.

"Miscommunication on our part on the first goal they scored, and then you know the puck was bouncing a couple of times it landed on the guy's stick, and empty net," said Luongo in explaining how the Canucks surrendered three goals.

Rookie Mason Raymond opened the scoring eight minutes into the second period.

Raymond gained control of the puck in front of his own bench, raced up the wing and circled around the back of the net. The 22-year-old wristed a shot on goal from a sharp angle, which beat Turco for his second goal of the season.

"It's one of those things you practice and practice," Raymond said. "You know, just come around the net and you want to get it up because the goalie is going down."

"He just came around and I knew he was firing it from the goal line and I really didn't want to move," Dallas netminder Marty Turco said. "I figured my right arm was going to be in the mix on that one, but those goals happen."

Vancouver nearly doubled its advantage three minutes later after Turco turned the puck over at his own blue line. Trevor Linden fired the puck into the empty net, but the goal was disallowed after a penalty had been assessed to Ohlund.

With the Canucks clinging to a 1-0 lead, Sedin scored his first goal of the game just 3:07 into the third period. The Swedish star benefited from brother Henrik deflecting the puck with his skate, and Daniel Sedin beat an out-of-position Turco for a 2-0 lead.

"The first two periods - like I said - it wasn't really good enough for our line," Daniel Sedin said. "We stayed a lot in the corners and cycled a lot but we didn't get a lot of scoring chances. But in the third, we picked it up a little bit and got some more shots to the net and it paid off."

Jussi Jokinen halved the deficit over three minutes later, but Sedin quickly regained the two-goal advantage for the Canucks.

"They buckled down defensively really well," Stars' forward Mike Modano said. "They play the exact same style as us. We know when we have leads we can really sit back and play good position and let them come to us and, like I said, they're really good on the second and third opportunities clearing those away."

Turco finished with 27 saves for Dallas.

"There was a few more goals scored than usual but I thought throughout the game both teams stuck with what they do best," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "I'm not quite sure what it looked like from up top but from ice level you could see both teams working really hard to find some open ice there wasn't a lot of it."