While not as prolific around the net as many of his Vancouver Canucks teammates, Jannik Hansen certainly has made the most of his 14 goals in 91 NHL games.

The third-year right-winger was at it again Tuesday night, notching his fourth career game-winning goal and second in as many games to cap a come-from-behind 6-4 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

As he skated through the crease, Hansen had the puck hit off him and then Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson before it crossed the goal line with two minutes eight seconds left in regulation.

"It was lucky. Lucky," Hansen said. "I'm coming from the corner and it touched me in the chest and got stuck in my jersey. I skated by the goalie, it dropped off, hit him in the back and with a few bounces went into the net."

Anderson said he was hoping officials would have waved off the goal for goalie interference.

"The puck hit him in the stomach and it came down and somehow bounced in," Anderson said. "He took me out of the play to get to the puck. It's a judgment call on the referee's part."

Hansen said he never worried that the goal would be nullified.

"I was sure it would [stand up] because I didn't use my hands," Hansen said. "It was a good goal."

Hansen also put Vancouver ahead to stay in the third period of Saturday's 4-2 win over Nashville.

4-point lead in Northwest

The Canucks have opened a four-point lead on second-place Colorado in the Northwest Division as they prepare to finish off their 14-game road trip against the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday. Tuesday's win raised their record to 8-5-0 on the trek.

"Frustrating. The most frustrating loss we've had in a long time," Colorado defenceman John-Michael Liles said. "Too many turnovers. We'd make a mistake and the puck was behind us and in the net. We stopped taking the play to them and they took it us."

Of Vancouver's 41 wins this season, 10 have come as a result of a third-period comeback. Mikael Samuelsson led Tuesday's surge with his first hat trick in eight-plus NHL seasons.

After Colorado beat Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo three times on 10 shots in the opening period, Samuelsson began the comeback with his 25th goal of the season.

But Peter Mueller, acquired from Phoenix before last week's trade deadline for Wojtek Wolski, needed just 36 seconds to restore the Avalanche's three-goal advantage.

An underachiever with the Coyotes, he has at least one point in each of his four outings with Colorado and a five-game points streak overall.

Samuelsson, though, wouldn't go away and added his career-best 26th and 27 goals before the end of the second. On his third goal, Samuelsson banged the puck through the legs of defenceman Scott Hannan and past Anderson.

"We wished we didn't have to come back in any game. It takes too much energy out of you," said Samuelsson, who has a career-high 46 points. "But this shows we can play for 60 minutes."

Burrows strikes on power play

Alex Burrows drew the visitors even at 8:04 of the third period with Avalanche winger T.J. Galiardi serving a tripping penalty.

Daniel Sedin rounded out the Vancouver scoring with an empty-net goal to snap an 11-game goalless drought.

Twin brother Henrik collected three assists to give him seven in his last four games, while Ryan Kesler set up two goals to extend his points streak to 10 games.

Rookie Matt Duchene helped stake Colorado to a 3-0 lead with a pair of first-period goals around Chris Stewart's 25th of the season and leads all first-year NHLers with 10 power-play goals.

Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault chose to return Luongo to the net to start the second, despite the fact he allowed three goals on 10 shots, and it paid off as the Olympic gold medallist made several outstanding stops among his 23 saves.

One of the biggest was a huge glove save against Mueller with 5:40 left in regulation.

Vancouver has won four straight in the season series and outscored the Avalanche 22-8 in that span. The final regular-season meeting between the teams is April 6 at General Motors Place.

With files from The Associated Press