The Vancouver Canucks will try to wrap their season-long homestand tonight with one more victory in a matchup with the skidding Edmonton Oilers at GM Place.
The Canucks are a solid 5-2-0 on the residency, improving their home mark on the season to 15-6-0. They were last in action on Tuesday, when brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin guided the club to a 4-1 triumph over Nashville.
The twins each had a goal and two assists, with Henrik moving into third in the NHL in scoring with 47 points off 16 goals and 31 assists.
"I didn't think they played their best game, but we didn't give them a whole lot, either," Henrik Sedin said. "Our [defensemen] were moving the puck really well, forwards came back, helping them out. We played a really solid game."
Steve Bernier and Sami Salo also scored for the Canucks, while Roberto Luongo turned aside 20 shots in the victory.
The Canucks will try for their third straight win this season over the Oilers, as they lost a one-goal matchup in Edmonton before consecutive home wins in the series. That includes a 7-3 victory when the teams last met on November 28.
Edmonton, which has lost four of its last five in Vancouver, has stumbled to a season-high five-game losing streak following Wednesday's 3-1 loss in Minnesota. To compound matters, the Oilers' current slide follows a five-game winning streak, the club's best of the season.
Robert Nilsson scored for the Oilers, who have lost 11 straight at Minnesota. Jeff Deslauriers stopped 24-of-26 shots in defeat.
"We got a lot of rebounds, but we have to go to the net and capitalize on those rebounds," Nilsson said. "Feels like every shot we make we have to keep low to get rebounds."
Edmonton has been outscored 23-10 over its current slide and will try to avoid losing six straight tonight for the first time since December 18-31, 2007.
Deslauriers, who continues to start in the place of Nikolai Khabibulin (back), is 0-2-0 with a 5.34 goals-against average in two career starts versus the Canucks, allowing six goals on 40 shots, while Luongo is 14-7-2 with a tie and 2.33 GAA in his career versus the Oilers.
