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The Anaheim Ducks beat Vancouver 6-5 in a shootout, handing the Canucks their first home loss since January 31.

Corey Perry scored in regulation and had the deciding goal in the shootout as the Ducks maintained their drive to secure a play-off spot with their eighth win in nine games.

Anaheim goaltender Jonas Hiller stopped the Canucks' third shootout effort.

The Ducks (40-32-6) are currently seventh in the Western Conference by a margin of one point with four games left, while Vancouver (42-25-10) clinched a play-off spot by virtue of the overtime loss and are tied for third.

"There were a lot of odd things going on out there," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said.

"I'm sure that both coaches won't be happy with the number of goals that were given up. We were trading chances. "We can't play that type of game."

In a match-up of two of the hottest teams in the NHL, both squads raced out to produce five goals apiece in the first two periods.

Bobby Ryan and Teemu Selanne (pictured) each scored twice for Anaheim, while five different players scored for the Canucks.

After taking a 2-0 lead in the first period, Anaheim surrendered four unanswered goals, capped by Daniel Sedin's 31st of the season that gave Vancouver a 4-2 lead at 5:18 in the second.

Henrik Sedin, Kyle Wellwood, Alexandre Burrows and Ryan Kesler also added goals for the Canucks, who lost for the first time in four games.

"Obviously Anaheim is a very good team offensively and they made us pay every time we made a mistake," said Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa.

Meanwhile, David Backes scored four goals to power St Louis to a 5-4 win over the slumping Detroit Red Wings, keeping the Blues in the hunt for a play-off spot.

Backes had St Louis' first three goals to notch his first career hat-trick, but it was his fourth of night, just 36 seconds after the Wings' Niklas Kronwall had tied the score at 4-4 late in the third, that earned the Blues their sixth win in seven games.

"I don't know what happened there," Backes said after upping his season goal total to 30. "It was kind of one of those games where you black out and the next thing you know people are patting you on the back.

"We showed a little bit of our perseverance, every time we seemed to get the lead they were tying it up and we just kept at them," Backes said.

The streaking Blues started the night sitting one point outside the Western Conference's eighth and final play-off spot but with the victory leap-frogged over the idle Nashville Predators into seventh with just four games to play.

While the Blues are hitting their stride heading toward the postseason, the Stanley Cup champions Red Wings - who have already secured a play-off berth - have faltered losing three straight at Joe Louis Arena.

Backes broke open a scoreless contest six minutes into the second then flipped a big rebound into an open net over a sprawling Ty Conklin to give the Blues a 2-0 lead.

The Red Wings hit back with a goal from Pavel Datsyuk before the end of the second and a power play tally from Nicklas Lidstrom to open third to get back on level terms.

In less than three minutes, however, St Louis had restored their two goal cushion with Backes and Andy McDonald finding the back of the net to retake control 4-2.

The Stanley Cup champions continued to fight back, Johan Franzen and Kronwall whipping the crowd into a frenzy tying the game at 4-4.

But Detroit could not complete the rally, Backes picking the short side on Conklin for the eventual game winner.

Backes' four goal game was the first by a Blues player since Scott Mellanby in March 2003.

RESULTS: (home team in CAPS): CAROLINA 4 NY Rangers 2; BOSTON 2 Ottawa 1; Montreal 5 NY ISLANDERS 1; St. Louis 5 DETROIT 4; Calgary 2 DALLAS 1; San Jose 2 EDMONTON 1; PHOENIX 2 Los Angeles 1

Reuters