Sedin twins lead Canucks past Ducks, 4-1

Daniel Sedin had a goal and two assists, his twin Henrik added three assists and Andrew Raycroft made 30 saves in the Vancouver Canucks’ 4-1 victory over the Ducks on Wednesday night in Vancouver, Canada.

Christian Ehrhoff, Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler also scored to help Vancouver bounce back from a loss to last-place Edmonton on Tuesday night. The win was the Canucks’ second in five games and kept them five points ahead of Colorado atop the Northwest Division.

Henrik Sedin moved back into the NHL scoring lead with 99 points, one more than Washington’s Alex Ovechkin.

Saku Koivu broke up Raycroft’s shutout bid eight minutes into the third period.

Jonas Hiller made 26 saves in his 19th consecutive start as Anaheim, coming off a 3-1 loss at Calgary on Tuesday night, fell 11 points behind eighth-place Detroit with nine games left in the race for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

Raycroft got a rare home start after Roberto Luongo struggled in the 3-2 loss to the Oilers. It was just the second time in four seasons that the backup goalie started in Vancouver ahead of a healthy Luongo.

Raycroft responded by making his best stops early, swallowing high shots through traffic by Corey Perry and Lubomir Visnovsky without giving up a rebound. He added a fully extended glove save off Matt Belesky’s shot from the slot early in the third, leading to chants of “Raycroft! Raycroft!” from a sellout crowd of 18,810.

Koivu ended his Raycroft’s bid for his second shutout on a two-on-one down low, but Raycroft made two good saves on a late power play and improved to 8-4-1.

At the other end, Hiller didn’t even see the two shots that got past him in the first period.

Ehrhoff made it 1-0 a power-play shot through traffic from the point 8 minutes 31 seconds into the game. Daniel Sedin scored for the third straight game, getting a goal on a strange play with 3:12 left.

After cutting behind linemate Alex Burrows as they crossed the blue line on a 2-on-2 rush, Sedin lifted a high, arcing backhand over the heads of Burrows and Hiller, who was crouching to find the puck as it went into the net.

The Sedins set up the third goal 6:19 into the second period — and it was a lot prettier. Daniel forced a turnover behind the Anaheim net and got the puck to Henrik at the side of the goal, and his spinning backhand pass left Burrows with an empty net at the other side for his team-leading 33rd goal.

Kurri joins Selanne tribute

Jari Kurri, the Hockey Hall of Famer and boyhood idol of Teemu Selanne, will travel from Finland to join a tribute marking Selanne’s 600th NHL goal before the Ducks’ game against Dallas on Monday at the Honda Center.

Selanne, who scored his 600th goal Sunday against Colorado, is poised to pass Kurri, who scored 601 goals, for 17th on the NHL’s career list. The two became close friends after Selanne, now 39, reached the NHL. They played together for one season with the Ducks in 1996-97 and recently joined efforts for Finland in the Olympics, winning a bronze medal. Kurri, 49, was the team’s general manager.

— Robyn Norwood