The Coyotes won five in a row from Oct. 23-Nov. 2 and haven't had two five-game winning streaks in a season since 2011-12. They're three points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and will try to sweep a season series against Vancouver for the first time since entering the NHL as the Winnipeg Jets in 1979-80. The Canucks are playing the second of a back to back after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Avalanche on Wednesday. They trail Colorado by five points.
Players to watch
Canucks center Elias Pettersson has been held without a goal in his past five games. Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper is 3-0-0 with a 1.93 goals-against average and .938 save percentage against Vancouver this season.
They said it
"It's frustrating, but our belief level is still high. … Every point matters right now. This is playoff hockey." -- Canucks forward Josh Leivo "We're playing some pretty good hockey here (with) 18 games left. We've got a great group of guys, the young guys are close and the veterans are great, too. It's nice to be part of this group." -- Coyotes forward Conor Garland
Edler is close to returning and could be a game-time decision. … Gaudette was out Wednesday but might play. … Demers, out since Nov. 15, is day to day.
Stat pack
Vancouver is 7-7-1 in back-to-back sets this season, including 3-4-0 in the second game. … The Coyotes have 11 more wins and 27 more points than they did at this point last season (19-34-10).
