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Sedin twins power Canucks past Coyotes

Mar 18, 2008 - 6:06 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- The Sedin twins made sure the Phoenix Coyotes did not gain any ground on the Vancouver Canucks.

All-Star Henrik Sedin scored twice and Roberto Luongo stopped 25 shots as the Canucks posted a 3-1 victory over the Coyotes on Monday.

Daniel Sedin and defensemen Sami Salo and Kevin Bieksa recorded a pair of assists for the Canucks (37-26-10), who moved into a tie for second place in the Northwest Division with Calgary (37-25-10) and Colorado (39-29-6). The trio is just two points behind division-leader Minnesota (39-26-8).

"It's always nice to get some goals," Daniel Sedin said. "We got some bounces and we went to the net a little more tonight."

Daniel Carcillo scored the lone goal for Phoenix (36-32-5), which fell seven points behind Colorado (39-29-6) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

"They're a pretty good hockey team," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "We knew coming into the game this was going to be a hard game. This was going to be a tough night. But listen, I'm very proud of how my guys battled and played hard. The difference was their power play got two big goals and our power play didn't."

The Sedin twins made their impact early and helped the Canucks hand the Coyotes their second straight loss. Phoenix is in a precarious position since it does not play Vancouver - or any other team ahead of it - during its final nine games.

"We're in tough, we know that," Gretzky said.

The Canucks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to first-period goals from Henrik Sedin and Taylor Pyatt. Henrik Sedin gathered the puck after Daniel's shot and sent a backhander past Ilya Bryzgalov for his 14th goal of the season, and Pyatt poked in a rebound for a power-play tally just 3:33 later.

"First one was a rebound, and I was able to get the puck up," Henrik Sedin said.

"They're always a lot of fun to play with, and it's nice to see they had a good game tonight," said Pyatt, who was on the ice with the Sedin twins for all three of Vancouver's goals. "We wanted to play as we can through the rest of the season."

Phoenix halved the deficit after Carcillo tallied with 1:55 left in the period. However, Vancouver restored the two-goal bulge at 13:37 of the second session on Henrik Sedin's second tally of the game, which came with a man advantage.

Daniel Sedin fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that bounced off Bryzgalov. Henrik Sedin was stationed near the left side and batted the puck out of midair and past the Russian netminder for his 15th goal of the season and a 3-1 lead.

"On the power play, the shot came from the side, and I batted it out of the air," Henrik Sedin said.

Phoenix, which had a 15-minute players' only meeting following Saturday's 5-2 loss to Edmonton, came out flat and was outshot, 17-8, in the opening 20 minutes.

Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots for the Coyotes, who were 0-for-5 with a man advantage.