Canucks 5, Ducks 4, SO

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle pointed to the positives of his team taking three of four points on a two-game trip - and blamed the officials for taking away the other one.

Ryan Kesler scored his second goal in a scramble with 21.5 seconds left to tie it, Jeff Tambellini had the only shootout goal and the Vancouver Canucks came back twice for a wild 5-4 victory Wednesday night.

It was the second straight night Anaheim blew a two-goal lead and ended up in a shootout. But Carlyle was more upset at the goal that sparked the comeback and forced goalie Curtis McElhinney out of the game bleeding from the forehead.

Rookie defenseman Cam Fowler, who scored the winning goal in the 10th round of a 3-2 shootout win in Edmonton the night before, put the Ducks up by two midway through the third period. But just over a minute later, McElhinney took Christian Ehrhoff's hard point shot off the mask and collapsed to the ice as Daniel Sedin put in the rebound to make it 4-3 with 8:18 left. The goalie had to be helped off the ice and went to the locker room bleeding.

"What's the call when a goalie gets hit in the mask with a slap shot?" Carlyle said. "(The referee) said it was too quick. Four sets of eyes out there. There are two linesmen that are supposed to make the call out there and that clearly is cut and dried."

Jonas Hiller took over and made several great saves. But Kesler banked a late shot in off his stick from below the goal line, and Tambellini, who also scored in regulation, fired a perfect shot over his right shoulder in the shootout.

"It's the worst thing that can happen to you as a backup, especially in a one-goal game," Hiller said. "It was not easy, but I thought I had a couple of good saves."

Joffrey Lupul, Corey Perry and Teemu Selanne scored in regulation for the Ducks, but Roberto Luongo stopped them all the shootout, squeezing the legs on Perry's final shot to seal the win.

"My teammates bailed me out with two goals in the third," said Luongo, who made 16 saves through regulation and overtime. "We haven't come back from behind once in the third period at all this year, so we were due for one."

Kesler, on a power-play tip, and Tambelini scored 11 seconds apart early in the first period, as the Canucks won for the fifth time in six games.

Perry and Selanne each had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, and Lupul scored his first goal in exactly a year.

McElhinney, making his first start since Nov. 17, made several brilliant stops among 24 saves before leaving. Hiller, who was supposed to have the night off after making 36 saves in his ninth straight start Tuesday, made 12 saves.

McElhinney suffered a pressure cut but was going to fly home with the team.

"I haven't really talked to him, but he looked all right, a couple of stitches," Hiller said. "Tough for him, he had a really good game.

Shut out two straight games before the Edmonton win, Anaheim is benefiting from the return of Lupul and Selanne, who has scored in consecutive games after missing five of the previous seven contests with a groin strain.

Lupul was out a lot longer. The 27-year-old scored his last goal on Dec. 8, 2009, and then missed nearly a year and lost 40 pounds after a pair of back surgeries - the second left him with in an infection - before returning three games ago.

A three-time 20-goal scorer, Lupul tied it midway through the second period, and Selanne put the Ducks ahead for good after Perry came out of the box to create a Ducks power play and odd-man rush 17 seconds left in the second period.

"It's huge when you put a 40-goal scorer and Lupul can score at will," Perry said. "Put those guys back in the lineup and it takes a lot of pressure off us and puts a lot of pressure on the other team which line to check.

NOTES: Perry's goal was his 300th career point and came in his 399th NHL game. ... Anaheim LW Aaron Voros came off injured reserve after missing four games with the flu, but was given a game misconduct after a second-period fight with Kevin Bieksa.