Canucks 2, Coyotes 1, SO

Ryan Kesler scored the winner in the sixth round of the shootout, leading the Vancouver Canucks to a 2-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Monday night. Kesler deked goalie Jason LaBarbera and beat him with a low shot to the stick side. Cody Hodson, Alex Edler and David Booth also scored in the shootout for the Canucks. Booth gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead midway through the second period. Ray Whitney, Gilbert Brule and Mikkel Boedker scored in the shootout for Phoenix. Vancouver closed to within two points of the idle Detroit Red Wings atop the West and has played one fewer game. The Canucks halted Phoenix's season-high five-game win streak to improve to 7-0-3 in their last 10 games. It was the eighth time in 10 games that the Canucks were taken to overtime and their fourth shootout win in seven tries during that span. The Coyotes moved three points up on Calgary and Colorado in the fight for the conference's final playoff spot. Keith Yandle forced overtime for the Coyotes with 2:06 remaining when Phoenix earned a faceoff in the Vancouver zone after an icing call against the Canucks. The Canucks couldn't clear and Byron Bitz failed to chip the puck past the Phoenix defenseman who slid the puck inside the post on Roberto Luongo's stick side. Neither goalie was severely tested during the game. Luongo made 23 saves while LaBarbera stopped 21 for Phoenix. Booth, who scored in Vancouver's 5-0 win in Phoenix in November, got the opening goal at 10:40 of the middle frame. Coyote forward Kyle Chipchura had a puck go off his glove but Booth corralled it at the Coyote blue-line and took it to the net. The speedy Canucks winger shielded the puck from Yandle as he skated in on LaBarbera and slid it past the goalie and inside the far post while falling to the ice. Kesler earned an assist on the goal. The Coyotes had opened the scoring in the first eight minutes in each of their last four games but the clubs played a listless first period in which Phoenix outshot the Canucks 9-4. Vancouver didn't get a shot on LaBarbera until 9:31 of the opening period even though the Coyotes had to kill back-to-back minor penalties. Ex-Canuck Taylor Pyatt had the best chance on Luongo, who went down to smother his attempt in the goalmouth. Hodgson stickhandled through the Coyote defense but his shot off a rink-length dash hit LaBarbera. Early in the second period, Pyatt set up Daymond Langkow in front of Luongo but later took a hard check along the boards from Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome and did not return. Edler blasted a shot from the high slot on a 3-on-2 short-handed break-in later in the period, but LaBarbera made the save then denied Jannik Hansen on the rebound. NOTES: Phoenix won both meetings here last season for the first time in franchise history ... LaBarbera played nine games for Vancouver in 2008-09 ... Winger Chris Higgins skated with Canuck teammates Monday morning after missing five games because of an adverse reaction to antibiotics prescribed for a bacterial infection. ... Higgins didn't play against Phoenix and neither did defenseman Keith Ballard who is suffering from a whiplash injury that's causing headaches ... Winger Dale Weise who also remained out of games but was back on the ice after missing two starts since blocking a shot.