Rugged forward Jeff Cowan just keeps on scoring for the Vancouver Canucks.

Cowan tallied his sixth goal in four games as the visiting Canucks cruised to a 4-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes before a crowd of 13,841 at Jobing.com Arena on Thursday.

Brendan Morrison loses an edge in Thursday's 4-2 Canucks road win.
(Paul Connors/Associated Press)

Cowan hadn't scored in 52 games before potting his first goal of the season a week ago.

But he has been on a tear ever since, and staked the Canucks to a 1-0 lead 7:50 into their contest with the Coyotes.

"I tried to get the shot off, but I whiffed on it," he said. "I think he [Coyotes goaltender Curtis Joseph] bit on the shot."

Brendan Morrison contributed a goal and an assist as the Canucks (40-22-5) moved four points ahead of the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames atop the Northwest Division.

Markus Naslund and Sami Salo had the other goals in support of Dany Sabourin, who turned aside 26 of 28 shots.

"I still think this is going to go to the wire," Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said. "There are so many conference games and division games left."

Shane Doan had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes (27-37-3), losers in 11 of their last 13 games.

It was Doan's team-high 24th goal of the season and extended his point streak to seven games.

Jeff Taffe scored the other goal and Joseph finished with 36 saves, notably a pad stop on a penalty shot by Daniel Sedin late in the second period.

"If you don't come ready against a team like that, you're going to get blown out every night," Taffe said.

Taffe is one of four Coyotes prospects with less than six games of NHL experience.

"It's not going to be fun and it's not going to be easy," Coyotes head coach Wayne Gretzky said of the recent youth movement.

"But in the end, it's the right way. We weren't doing that well with a $42-million payroll, so what difference does it make?"

Ninety-six seconds after Cowan opened the scoring, Morrison made it 2-0 by redirecting Brent Sopel's point shot for his 18th. 

Naslund scored his 22nd at 12:33 of the first period, taking a pass from Bryan Smolinski and beating Joseph over the blocker.

"When you play with a guy [Smolinski] you can give and go with, it's easier for sure."

Salo put Vancouver ahead 4-0 as he counted his 12th on a screen shot 8:55 into the second period.

"It's definitely harder to play these games when you get out to a lead like that," Cowan said. "It's hard to stay with it.

"But we did a pretty good job of it."

Vancouver has won four consecutive games and improved to 10-1-1 over its last 12 outings.

With files from Sports Network