Alex Burrows recorded his second-straight hat trick and Roberto Luongo made 31 saves for his 50th career shut out as the Vancouver Canucks blanked the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0 on Thursday night.
Henrik Sedin assisted on all three Burrows goals to move into sole possession of the NHL scoring lead, moving three points clear of San Jose's Joe Thornton.
It's the first time a Canuck has held top spot since Markus Naslund was tied with Robert Lang, now with Phoenix, on Feb. 18, 2004.
Mikael Samuelsson also scored for the Canucks (27-16-1) as they posted their fourth straight win and 11th in the past 14 games. Vancouver moved into a tie with Calgary for first place in the Northwest Division while the Coyotes dropped to 26-15-4.
Burrows opened the scoring at 11:35 of the first period as he put a shot from a sharp angle over Phoenix goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, who stopped 20 of 24 shots.
It was Luongo's third shutout of the season.
Vancouver defenceman Aaron Rome was hurt and bleeding profusely after Phoenix winger Taylor Pyatt blindsided him late in the first. Not seeing Pyatt, Rome took a pass behind the end line and was crunched by the former Canuck. Rome got up, spun around in a daze and then fell again before being helped off the ice.
Pyatt was not penalized on the play and Rome did not return.
The Canucks lost another defenceman, oft-injured Sami Salo, in the second as he was clipped in the face by a teammate's stick. Salo also started bleeding immediately and left the ice, leaving the Canucks with just four rearguards, but he returned at the start of the third.
Vancouver's Mason Raymond was awarded a penalty shot with 2:05 left as Vernon Fiddler tripped him on a breakaway. But Bryzgalov stuck out a leg to stop his deke attempt.
With only four seconds left in the second, Samuelsson fired in Ryan Kesler's sharp-angled pass from behind the net to give the Canucks a 2-0 advantage.
Vancouver managed to keep the lead despite being outshot 15-6 in the second. But the Coyotes were no match for the Canucks in the third as Burrows and the Sedins put on a passing and shooting show for a delighted crowd of 18,810 -- the 285th consecutive sellout -- at General Motors Place.
Burrows notched his second goal of the night at 1:01 on the third as he culminated a three-way passing play with Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Daniel angled a pass out front from behind the net and then Henrik sent the puck back the other way to Burrows as he cut towards the goal.
Burrows converted another pretty passing play with the Sedins at 4:56 as fans littered the ice with hats.
Henrik Sedin extended his points streak to eight games.
Notes: Vancouver forwards Steve Bernier and Kyle Wellwood and Phoenix counterpart Petr Prucha all played the 300th game of their respective careers. ...Phoenix centre Daniel Winnik returned to the lineup after missing five games with an upper-body injury. ... Samuelsson's goal was the 100th of his career. ...The financially-struggling Coyotes don't get much face time with their fans. Their longest home stand of the season, which begins Saturday against the New York Islanders, is just six games. It also ranks as the Coyotes' longest home stand since 2005-06, when they played 10 straight in Phoenix.
