Oilers shut out to end season

Vancouver Canucks' Sami Salo checks Edmonton Oilers' Ryan Smyth into Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo's net in Vancouver, British Columbia April 7, 2012.

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks picked up their second straight Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s best regular-season team on Saturday night.

The Canucks, who only needed one point to overtake the New York Rangers for the most regular-season points, got two with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, who finished the season in 29th place, 38 points south of the Canucks. Vancouver wound up with 112 points, two more than the Rangers, who were clobbered 4-1 by the Washington Capitals several hours earlier Saturday. The Canucks will get home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. They would likely trade both Presidents’ Trophy pennants for a Stanley Cup banner, in their 42nd year in the league, but for one night they could celebrate being the best team over 82 games, before opening the first round against the Western Conference No. 8-seed San Jose Sharks.

The Oilers, who were 30th the two previous seasons, managed 74 points, nine more than the last place Columbus Blue Jackets, so will go into Tuesday’s draft lottery with the second-best odds to get the first overall choice.

The Canucks peppered goalie Devan Dubnyk, who was heroic throughout. Dubnyk made an incredible stick stop on Chris Higgins — one of Vancouver’s 42 shots — and the Canucks didn’t break through until their 26th shot, 35 minutes into the game, when Henrik Sedin scored. It was his first goal since Feb. 19, also against the Oilers. He slapped a 10-footer past the diving Dubnyk with Darcy Hordichuk in the penalty box for an extra two minutes after a skirmish with the yappy disturber Maxim Lapierre, who had clobbered Hordichuk into the side boards.

Sami Pahlsson and David Booth added goals in the third. Pahlsson blew a 20-footer past Dubnyk after some lacklustre defensive work, with Jannik Hansen sending him the puck in the slot. Pahlsson was picked up from the Blue Jackets at the trade deadline as a third-line centre. Then Booth, who had eight shots, slipped past Jeff Petry and tucked one past Dubnyk in alone on another power play with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the box for four minutes for a stick to Sami Salo’s face.

The Oilers, who only had 17 shots on Roberto Luongo, hit two goalposts in the second by Ales Hemsky and Jordan Eberle, Luongo stopped Ryan Jones on a breakaway and defenceman Alex Edler slid to stop an open-net shot by Sam Gagner.

It was the sixth time the Oilers were shut out this season, five of those coming on the road.

It was Luongo’s 60th career shutout, his fifth this season.