Music: {allcanada} Sendins, Schneider send Canucks past Stars

Friday, December 31, 2010

{allcanada} Sendins, Schneider send Canucks past Stars

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/ap/f2/fullj.64e1cd716907008d5f45dbf535b3e4bf/ap-60c534471fe34a1e841ca823d7c1bc49.jpg

DALLAS (AP)—Daniel and Henrik Sedin (notes) scored power-play goals, Cory Schneider (notes) made 44 saves and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 on Friday night for their fourth straight victory.

Daniel Sedin (notes) and Raffi Torres (notes) had goals in a 47-second span late in the first period, and Vancouver went on to improve to 13-1-2 in its last 16 games, 6-0-1 on the road during that stretch.

Kevin Bieksa (notes) added a power-play goal for the Canucks.

Schneider was backed up by Roberto Luongo (notes), who rejoined his teammates Friday. Luongo had been with his wife, Gina, who gave birth to a boy, the couple's second child, on Wednesday in South Florida.

Schneider, 6-0-2 this season, stopping all 18 shots he faced in the second period. Schneider also turned aside James Neal's (notes) penalty shot in the second period.

Brenden Morrow (notes) had a power-play goal for the Stars, 0-3-1 in their last four at home. Dallas was coming off a 7-3 loss Wednesday night to Detroit when the Stars gave up six straight goals.

The Sendins combined on the first period's only power play to get their team rolling.

Henrik mis-hit a pass from the right circle that dribbled into the slot to Daniel, who fired the puck past goalie Kari Lehtonen (notes) at 17:11.

Vancouver didn't waste any time making it 2-0 when Jannik Hansen's (notes) stretch pass sent Torres in alone, and Torres beat Lehtonen with a backhander at 17:58.

Henrik struck on his team's second power play of the night, converting Alexander Edler's (notes) cross-ice pass for a 3-0 advantage at 9:52 of the second period.

Dallas' James Neal was awarded a penalty shot when he was tripped by Bieksa on a power-play breakaway at 13:39 of the second period, but Schneider came up with a pad save.

When Bieksa's shot from the right point glanced off Morrow and past Lehtonen at 16:50 of the second period, Stars coach Marc Crawford sent in backup Andrew Raycroft (notes).

The Stars avoided the shutout on Morrow's power-play goal at 3:21 of the third period.

NOTES: The Stars have hosted a New Year's Eve game since 1997, going 8-4-2 in those games. … The teams met for the first time this season. … The Canucks opened a three-game trip. … Lehtonen gave up four goals on 14 shots.