The Phoenix Coyotes recovered from an early 2-0 deficit to record a 5-4 victory over the Vancouver Canucks Wednesday to boost their playoff hopes. After Alexandre Burrows and Ryan Kesler each scored for Vancouver to open the first period, Phoenix's Rostislav Klesla and Shane Doan responded with goals to kickstart the Coyotes comeback. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Gilbert Brule recorded second-period goals to put the visitors ahead 4-3 before Antoine Vermette stretched the lead to two in the third. Dan Hamhuis netted a shot to get the Canucks back within one with about eight minutes remaining but they could not find the equalizer as they fell to their fourth loss in five games. Vancouver (42-20-8), second in the Western Conference, failed to gain ground on St. Louis who they trail by six points. Phoenix (35-25-11) narrowly hold onto seventh, a point ahead of Colorado. Mike Smith made 39 saves for Phoenix while Roberto Luongo had 28 for Vancouver. Avalanche 5, Sabres 4: Jamie McGinn forced overtime by scoring with 2 seconds left in regulation, and Peter Mueller netted the lone shoot-out goal in the Colorado Avalanche's win over the Buffalo Sabres. McGinn scored twice, Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and assist, and David Jones scored for the Avalanche (38-30-4), which vaulted out of a four-way tie for eighth place in the Western Conference to sixth. Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves through overtime and stopped all three of Buffalo's shoot-out attempts to improve to 8-0 in the tiebreaker. Rookie Marcus Foligno scored twice for Buffalo (33-29-9), which inched within three points of eighth-place Washington in the East. Drew Stafford had a goal and two assists, Tyler Ennis had three assists, and Alexander Sulzer also scored for the Sabres. Montreal 3, Ottawa 2 (SO): David Desharnais scored in regulation and in a shoot-out for the host Canadiens. Desharnais had the only goal in the shoot-out, and Montreal goalie Carey Price stopped all three Ottawa attempts. Winnipeg 5, Dallas 2: Andrew Ladd scored twice for the host Jets, who snapped the Stars' six-game winning streak. Loui Eriksson had both goals for Dallas. The Stars, who won, 1-0, at Minnesota the previous night, dropped to 1-10-2 in the second games of back-to-backs. Other results: Edmonton 3, Columbus 0; Anaheim 4, Detroit 0.
