VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Lonny Bohonos had two goals and an assist during a five-goal first period and Martin Gelinas added a pair of tallies and two assists as the Vancouver Canucks held on for a 6-4 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night, keeping their slim playoff hopes alive.
Donald Brashear and Bret Hedican also scored in the first period for the Canucks, who improved to 5-1-3 in their last nine games. Vancouver moved within two points of eighth-place Chicago for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Canucks close the regular season at home against Edmonton Saturday, but the Blackhawks have two games remaining.
"I like when other guys are the hero, I'm enjoying it though," Bohonos said. "I thought I had a pretty good game and had a lot of fun out there. Coach tells me to keep my feet moving, keep shooting the puck and play both ways. I just remind myself to get involved, be physical and shoot the puck."
Dallas Drake scored a goal and set up another for Phoenix, which is 0-2-1 in its last three contests. The Coyotes dropped into a fifth-place tie with Edmonton in the West, two points behind Anaheim.
"Coach (Don) Hay basically just came in (after the first period) and told us what we have to do," Drake said. "He should've come in and smacked every one of us upside the head. He said we have to shoot the puck into their zone and quit turning the puck over, that's what cost us in the first and when we stopped, we started scoring and playing well."
Jeremy Roenick's 28th goal of the season 8:06 into the third period drew Phoenix within 5-4. But Kirk McLean made several saves down the stretch to preserve the lead until Gelinas scored into an empty net with six seconds left.
"We had a lot of chances, Lonny was the hot shooter tonight," Gelinas said. "He was scoring from everywhere, all we wanted to do was get him the puck. He played a great game and it was a good start for the team."
Igor Korolev had a chance to tie for the Coyotes, but his shot from the left faceoff circle with 6:30 remaining hit both goalposts. The play was reviewed and replays showed the puck crossed the goal line.
Roenick engaged in a fight with Vancouver's Scott Walker just 35 seconds into the game.
"The intensity started off the first shift, I thought it was a pretty good fight, Walker is a pretty tough kid, he throws some good punches, it was a lot of fun," Roenick said. "You have to try and get your team going anyway possible, if you're going to do it, you wanna do it early in the game. We got into a hole tonight and put ourselves too deep to battle out of it."
McLean finished with 32 saves.
Gelinas got the Canucks rolling with his first goal of the game and 33rd of the season 6:47 into the first period. Brashear got his sixth goal just under three minutes later later for a 2-0 lead.
The first of Bohonos' two goals came with 7:06 to play in the first and extended Vancouver's advantage to 3-0 before Keith Tkachuk's 51st goal 83 seconds later got Phoenix on the board.
Bohonos scored his second of the game 37 seconds later on a wrist shot from the left circle to restore Vancouver's three-goal cushion. Hedican beat Pat Jablonski with a slap shot from the left circle with 1:32 left for his fourth of the season, completing the five-goal period.
Bob Corkum netted his eighth goal at 6:06 of the second period and Drake's 16th at 9:46 got the Coyotes within 5-3.
Nikolai Khabibulin allowed three goals on five shots before he
was replaced by Jablonski after Bohonos' first goal. Jablonski
stopped 19 of 21 shots.
Jon's 3 stars:
1. Lonny Bohonos
2. Martin Gelinas
3. Dallas Drake
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