Red Wings 2, Canucks 1
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Tomas Tatar's goal at 18:58 of the second period gave the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.
The Red Wings (7-4-2) ended their four-game losing streak, while the Canucks (9-5-1) suffered their first loss in five outings.
Detroit overcame a 1-0, first-period deficit and held a 2-1 advantage at the end of the second.
The Red Wings outshot the Canucks 27-20.
Daniel Alfredsson scored Detroit's other goal, tying the in the second period.
Vancouver's Daniel Sedin opened the scoring 14:12 into the first period as he put in a high shot from a sharp angle.
The Wings outshot the Canucks 12-7 in the first period but could not beat a steady Roberto Luongo. The Canucks goaltender came up big again in the second as he foiled Drew Miller as the Detroit left winger tried to put in a rebound off the boards. A short time later, Luongo caught a hard Pavel Datsyuk shot.
At 11:37 of the second period, Alfredsson scored on a shot from the slot. The play began when Detroit defenseman Brendan Smith lost possession of the puck on a rush involving several players, and a number of Canucks were unsuccessfully scrambled back to defend.
Tatar put the Red Wings on top when he beat a screened Luongo with a long shot. Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev screened Luongo and picked a bad time to lift his leg instead of blocking the shot.
The Red Wings had the better scoring chances in the third period, but Luongo kept the Canucks in the chase. He sprawled on his stomach to stop Justin Abdelkader with just over four minutes left, and he finished with 25 saves.
Vancouver coach John Tortorella pulled Luongo for an extra attacker with 1:39 left, but the Canucks' comeback hopes were hampered by a hooking penalty on Daniel Sedin with 1:21 left. The left winger was penalized for pulling down Alfredsson, who appeared to fall of his own volition.
A holding penalty to Niklas Kronwall with 26 seconds left gave the Canucks some late hope, but Howard kept the door closed to secure the win.
Howard made 19 saves.
NOTES: Detroit scratched former Canucks RW Mikael Samuelsson and RW Jordan Tootoo, while C Darren Helm (groin), D Jonathan Ericsson (shoulder) and RW Johan Franzen (undisclosed) were sidelined with injuries. ... The Canucks played without C Jordan Schroeder (ankle), RW Jannik Hansen (upper body), LW David Booth (lower body) and RW Dale Weise (lower body). ... The game was the first of two meetings between the teams this season.
