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Sedin, Luongo too much for resurgent Oilers

Mar 21, 2008 - 6:18 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- The Vancouver Canucks put a damper on the Edmonton Oilers' late push for the postseason.

Daniel Sedin and Matt Pettinger scored first-period goals and Roberto Luongo stopped 33 shots as the Canucks posted a 4-1 victory over the Oilers on Thursday.

Taylor Pyatt and Trevor Linden also tallied for the Canucks (38-26-10), who won for the sixth time in eight games and moved within one point of idle Minnesota (39-26-9) for first place in the Northwest Division.

"I thought we started off really well, only gave them two or three shots in the first 10 minutes, but then we got into some penalty trouble," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said.

Luongo helped extinguish the Oilers' six power-play chances as the Canucks were outshot, 34-21.

"They got a lot of shots in the first, so I felt comfortable right away," Luongo said. "It's going to be important to feed off of what we did (Thursday), keep working hard and make sure we're ready to go when the puck drops (Friday against Minnesota)."

"We're going to play for first place, and obviously it's going to be a good challenege for us, and I know our guys are looking forward to it," Vigneault added.

Defenseman Tom Gilbert scored the lone goal for the Oilers, who entered having won 10 of 12 but missed a chance to gain ground on Vancouver.

However, Edmonton (37-33-5) remained within five points of Colorado (39-30-6) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Avalanche dropped a 2-1 decision to the Calgary Flames on Thursday.

The Oilers still have a prime chance to gain ground as they play their final seven games against Northwest Division opponents.

After a scoreless first period, Sedin netted his 27th goal of the season just 69 seconds into the second.

"The first goal is always important, and to see it go in was a good feeling for our team, but I'm sure it didn't feel to good for them," Sedin said. "We'll take that."

Pettinger doubled the lead with 2:05 to go in the session as he beat goaltender Dwayne Roloson high to the glove side for his fifth of the campaign.

Pyatt made it 3-0 at 4:58 of the third before Gilbert ended Luongo's shutout bid at with 9:51 remaining.

"Give a lot of credit to (Luongo), he covers the net so well and he covers pucks up," Gilbert said. "(He) makes that first save and he makes it frustrating. "Our goal was just a product of having a guy in front and having him back in his net. I was just trying to get it through, trying to get it to the left side, so give the credit to the guy in front of the net."

There would be no comeback, though, as Linden scored a shorthander on a 2-on-1 rush, beating Roloson with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle at with 6:40 to go.

"We'd been up and down a bit lately. Tonight wasn't great on our part, but we did enough to win," Linden said. "They have some very skilled players on their power play and we put ourselves in a hole with giving up so many early, but we got out of the period even, managed to get the lead and held onto it."

Roloson stopped 17 shots for the Oilers, who were 0-for-6 with the man advantage.