Canucks beat Stars to pull within four of playoff spot

VANCOUVER — Elias Pettersson scored twice and had an assist and the Vancouver Canucks stretched their win streak to six games with a 6-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday.

Brock Boeser and Jason Dickinson each had a goal and two assists for the Canucks (38-28-10). Vasily Podkolzin and Conor Garland had the other Vancouver goals and Oliver Ekman-Larsson had two assists.

The Stars (43-28-5) replied with two goals from Roope Hintz, including a short-handed tally in the second period.

Thatcher Demko stopped 28 of 30 shots for Vancouver, which swept the three-game season series between the teams.

Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 15 of 19 shots before being pulled midway through the second period. Scott Wedgewood had 10 saves in relief.

The Canucks sit five points behind the Stars in the Western Conference standings, with Dallas holding the second wild-card spot.

Vancouver is also a single point behind the Vegas Golden Knights, who are chasing the L.A. Kings for third place in the Pacific Division, a position that also comes with a post-season berth.

The Stars pulled Wedgewood with nearly five minutes left in regulation for an extra attacker but couldn't get a puck past Demko.

Pettersson scored into the empty net with 3:01 to go. It was his career-high 29th goal of the season.

The third period was just 49 seconds old when Podkolzin made it 5-2 for Vancouver.

The Russian rookie unleashed a sharp-angle shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle, finding space behind Wedgewood and sending a laser into the back of the net.

A fight broke out late in the second period after Dallas' Jamie Benn ran Vancouver's Quinn Hughes into the end boards.

Canucks defenceman Luke Schenn took exception to the play and dropped