(My Sportsbook) - Don't look now but the Vancouver Canucks are the hottest team in the Western Conference.

After a 5-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, the Canucks have now won five straight games and four in a row at GM Place, while pulling within two points of the Minnesota Wild for the top spot in the Northwest Division.

It was the Vancouver power play that propelled the Canucks to victory on Wednesday, as the team finished 3-for-8 with the extra skater. The club is now 8-for-20 with the man-advantage in its last four games.

"That's going to be the key," said Vancouver captain Markus Naslund, who had two power-play goals against Chicago. "If we don't have our power play working, we're going to have a very difficult time. I'm sure the games we lost we didn't score many power-play goals."

Naslund has been the driving force behind the team's resurgent power play and has four PPGs in his last three games.

"It has to do with confidence just like the overall game," Naslund added. "We're a pretty confident group right now and we're finding ways to win."

Vancouver wasted little time jumping out in front on Chicago. Just 14 seconds into the game, Trevor Linden tallied his third of the season to give the Canucks an early lead and they never trailed. On a 2-on-1, Linden kept the puck and snapped a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Steve Passmore to the stick side.

The tally was even more significant given the fact that it was his 262nd tally in a Canucks' sweater -- tying former captain Stan Smyl's 17-year-old franchise record.

"It's obviously nice because Stan is a good friend of mine, but I don't make that much of it," Linden said of the goal. "The team is playing well right now and it's been a good few months for me here with the 1,000-game [celebration], and it's a fun time of year now. We're winning and that's the focus for me."

Matt Cooke scored a shorthanded tally three minutes later and the Canucks never looked back.

"It's huge anytime you can score two quick goals," Cooke said. "We're a team that relishes it."

WHAT'S AHEAD

Vancouver will wrap up its homestand on Friday versus the defending Stanley Cup-champion Detroit Red Wings before embarking on a six-game road trip that will include stops in Minnesota, Carolina, Tampa, Sunrise, New York (Islanders) and New Jersey.