BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca
DALLAS -- Like the postman, through ice, sleet and snow, the Vancouver Canucks delivered Tuesday night in Dallas.
The evening after an ice storm slammed Dallas, there may have been 3,000 fans on hand at the American Airlines Center to see Vancouver walk over the Stars 4-1.
Daniel Sedin had two assists, and could have had more if Alex Burrows could find his touch. He finally scored the game's closing goal (Burrows' 12th) after missing twice earlier in the third period.
"That's what I told Hank and Danny right after: 'It was the third chance you set me up for this period,'" he said of the goal, a nice bit of work where Burrows caused a turnover, then took a pass from Henrik to the goalmouth for the deposit.
"It finally went in. It's the law of averages when you play with those guys."
The other law going on Tuesday night was the one the Canucks laid down on a very good Dallas club - again.
Vancouver has owned Dallas this season, beating them 4-1 on New Year's Eve and administering a 7-1 thrashing on Jan. 24 in Vancouver. All in all, it is a tasty development for Canucks fans who love to see former Vancouver coach Marc Crawford squirming behind the Dallas bench.
"It's been the same scenario in all three games," said a satisfied Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault. "They take penalties, and our power play has been capable of making them pay."
Crawford burned his time out early in this one, right after the second Vancouver power-play goal in the opening 3:05 of the second period.
James Neal gave the Canucks a power play to take into the middle period when he got too aggressive with a cross-check late in the first, and Mikael Samuelsson sniped a goal just 26 seconds after the intermission. He picked a spot the size of a bottle cap to rifle his 10th of the season over Kari Lehtonen's left shoulder.
Adam Burish found his way into the box not long after, and Christian Ehrhoff sprung him early with a blast from the right circle. The first period had ended in a 0-0 deadlock, but the Canucks led 2-0 just 3:05 into Period 2.
Loui Eriksson drew Dallas to within one at the 6:22 mark, but before the second period was over Ryan Kesler delivered the short-handed back-breaker, backhanding home a Jannik Hansen feed after some fine work by Hansen to create a passing lane on the two-on-one.
Vancouver has now scored eight power-play goals and one shorty in three games versus the Pacific Division leaders this season.
"Spectacular," was how Burrows assessed the Canuck special teams. "For some reason against them, we get three big kills in the first period, we scored short-handed and had two power-play goals in the second."
With the win, the Canucks stepped into the coveted No. 1 spot overall after Philadelphia was beaten 4-0 in Tampa. They lost Aaron Volpatti to a suspected shoulder injury in the game, and though Vigneault said he "probably won't play" Wednesday in Phoenix, he said it's just a bruise and nothing more serious.
Vancouver iced five NHL rookies in Volpatti, Chris Tanev, Lee Sweatt, goalie Cory Schneider (solid with 25 saves) and Cody Hodgson, who saw 9:52 of ice time in his NHL debut.
Hodgson was a victim of a minor penalty-filled game, and likely also lost some ice time when Volpatti went down. Vigneault liked his game however, which began when the team failed to follow Hodgson out for warm-up and the rookie skated two laps all by himself.
"It was a lonely two laps," laughed Hodgson, who had two shots, a nice scoring chance, but went 22 percent in the face-off circle despite winning his first NHL draw cleanly from Mike Ribeiro. "I knew something was up when they asked me to lead the warm-up."
All in all, it was a solid way to come out of the All-Star break, as the Canucks sent a message on the road that they won't be letting their foot off the gas, stretching their Conference lead to seven points over Detroit.
"This is a match-up we like," Henrik Sedin said of Dallas. "We knew it was going to be physical, and we've got 20, 23 guys in here who are going to be ready."
