Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Vancouver crushes Dallas 7-1 in battle of Western Conference powers

Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Alexander Edler, Christian Ehrhoff

Vancouver Canucks players, from left, Henrik Sedin, of Sweden; Ryan Kesler; Alexander Edler, of Sweden; and Christian Ehrhoff, of Germany, celebrate Kesler’s goal against the Dallas Stars during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Monday, Jan. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

AP

In a game where it was meant to be a showdown to see who the top team in the Western Conference could be, the Vancouver Canucks served notice that they’re not to be trifled with. Vancouver delivered a 7-1 whooping of Dallas on the night they honored eight-year veteran and Canucks legend Thomas Gradin into the team’s ring of honor.

The Canucks nearly scored a goal for each year Gradin played in Vancouver and saw seven different goal scorers get on the board to do it. Henrik Sedin led the way with a goal and two assists. Ryan Kesler, Mikael Samuelsson, and Mason Raymond each had a goal and an assist while Alex Edler and Daniel Sedin had two assists.

Roberto Luongo’s night was a relatively quiet one making 24 saves to get the easy win. Brad Richards got Dallas’ lone goal as he made a beautiful fake-shot deke to beat Luongo for his 20th goal of the year. Kari Lehtonen was tonight’s victim in net making 26 saves on 33 shots before being pulled with under seven minutes to play. Andrew Raycroft played the final few minutes and made two saves.

Vancouver’s win makes them the first team to 30 wins this year and gives them 69 points on the year, tying them with Philadelphia for most points in the league. You may not see them much on TV here but Vancouver is a very dangerous team and well worth watching getting tremendous performances this season from both Henrik and Daniel Sedin as well as Ryan Kesler having the best season of his career.