VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Even Donald Brashear's presence couldn't help the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night.

Jozef Stumpel scored two goals as the Los Angeles Kings beat the Canucks 5-2.

Brashear, who suffered a severe concussion after being slashed on the head by Boston's Marty McSorley earlier this week, attended the game and had a message read to the fans by the public address announcer.

"Thank you everyone for all of your support over the past few days, it means a lot to me," the message said. "I'm feeling better as each day goes by and I hope to be back soon, helping my teammates work for the playoffs. So, cheer loud tonight and get behind the boys. I'll see you soon. Brash."

Len Barrie and Craig Johnson also scored for the Kings, who have won nine of their past 12 games. Mattias Norstrom had two assists.

"We've been playing really well lately," Barrie said. "We're playing well as a team right now. Everyone is healthy. Everyone's fitting into the role and everyone's contributing. We have really good chemistry on this team and we're having a lot of fun right now."

Stumpel scored his goals in a three-minute span early in the second period to put the Kings up 4-0.

Vancouver cut the lead to 4-2 late in the third period on goals 40 seconds apart by Ed Jovanovski and Trent Klatt, but Glen Murray scored an empty-netter in the final minute to clinch the win.

"If we play the way we did in the third period, take a page out of that, use that from this point on, we'll be OK," Klatt said. "When you're down 4-0, there's a little more desperation. No one in here quit and no one's going to quit. It was just a matter of sending a message and proving to ourselves that we can score."

The Canucks had their season-high four-game unbeaten streak stopped and remained seven points behind idle San Jose for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Kings looked shaky in the early going, but then took control, scoring twice in the final 2:25 of the first period for a 2-0 lead. Los Angeles outshot Vancouver 13-3 in the final 15 minutes of the first.

"I thought we played very smart defensively," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "We're in a real playoff battle. There's some teams chasing us and we want to stay ahead of them."