Canucks top Sharks, take 2-0 series lead

VANCOUVER -- Daniel Sedin scored his second power-play goal of the game, and Chris Higgins and Mason Raymond added man-advantage goals in the third period for the Vancouver Canucks, who routed the San Jose Sharks, 7-3, last night and took a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.

Defenseman Aaron Rome also scored his first NHL playoff goal with 5:30 left as the Canucks poured it on late. The game turned when Kevin Bieksa scored the go-ahead goal on a breakaway with 7:55 left in the second period. Higgins finished with a goal and two assists.

Game 3 is tomorrow night at San Jose.

Bieksa, who scored the tying goal in the Canucks' 3-2 comeback win in Game 1, beat four Sharks up the ice to take a cross-ice, blue line-to-blue line pass from Higgins. He then beat goalie Antti Niemi with a quick shot between the legs.

The game got ugly after Bieksa pounded Sharks forward Patrick Marleau in a one-sided fight six minutes later. That angered San Jose tough guy Ben Eager, who was yelling at the Canucks bench after the fight. He then ran Daniel Sedin face first into the boards late in the period. Eager took another penalty in the third, and the Canucks capitalized when Higgins scored on the power play to make it 4-2 with 12:04 left.

Raymond added another power-play goal -- on a too- many-men penalty that negated Joe Thornton's breakaway -- with 3:18 left. The Canucks went 4-for-6 on the power play. Sedin and Raffi Torres scored 39 seconds apart in the first period, and Roberto Luongo finished with 28 saves.

Eager also scored with 2:33 left, but took a penalty then when he pushed Luongo into the net after the puck. Logan Couture and Marleau scored power-play goals in the first period, and Niemi made 31 saves.

After San Jose coach Todd McLellan singled out that line after Game 1, Dany Heatley sent Couture in with a nice chip pass at the blue line, and Couture lifted his team-leading seventh goal past the outstretched blocker of Luongo 2:28 in.

Sedin leads the NHL with five power-play goals in the playoffs, and is tied with Tampa Bay's Sean Bergenheim for the overall lead with eight goals. Henrik Sedin had three assists. -- AP