Red Wings win over Canucks in OT

Photo by: Jeff Vinnik/Getty Images

The Red Wings had to wait over a week to get a victory Tuesday night. An overtime win for Detroit came at the hands of captain Henrik Zetterberg who made a direct pass to Justin Abdelkader giving him the game winner beating the Canucks 3-2 at Rogers Arena. Frans Nielsen had two goals early on that clearly helped Detroit be on the right track on the last day of February.

The Red Wings took a week off that hopefully would give them a boost to be successful in the final months before the postseason. They opened their lineups with the trades of Tomas Jurco and defenseman Brendan Smith. It clearly put the roster on notice that a push to get offensive would assure them security to play on for the Red Wings. Despite being on a losing streak and the start of a road trip, Detroit’s strategy was to give it their all and make good of what moves they have and will make prior to the March. 1 deadline starting with Vancouver.

The Canucks came off the opening faceoff with some running speed that eventually led to Detroit making an early mistake. They handed Vancouver a power play in the first minute, but the kill gave the Red Wings a chance to make their best response. It came at 4:36 with Nielsen getting the puck in the neutral zone with a quick pass to Andreas Athanasiou. He got it back after flying by the young forward to ring one through the net behind Canucks Ryan Miller for his 12^th.

Things got better for him later on as both teams began to show fight for possession crossing the halfway point of the period. It became time for the Red Wings to gain their first man advantage with things looking better for the Red Wings squad. It was Nielsen for a second time on the night, scoring for Detroit just 16 seconds into their power play that gave them an impressive 2-0 lead.

Despite the Canucks unable to get good scoring chances on Petr Mrazek in net for a fourth time, they did stay close with the Red Wings on shots to the net. The Czech dealt with many of them on his own making big glove saves and movements to keep his eye on the puck. When the period came to a close both Detroit and Vancouver recorded 10 shots each with the Canucks being the more physical team while the Red Wings sat up two goals.

The Canucks cut that in half 1:55 into the second with the Sedin twins playing the support staff of teammate Marcus Grandlund. The six foot center rushed in on the Detroit net scoring his 16^th of the season ending Mrazek’s shutout. They spent the remainder of the period trying to even the game at two while time was on the clock. Vancouver shot, rushed and even ran into the Detroit netminder but their actions were unable to produce them a goal to level the playing field. They began to outshoot Detroit on shots to the net finishing ahead with eight to the Red Wing’s five.

As a lone goal separated the teams going into the third the hunt for Nielsen was even more important to score a hat trick while 20 minutes of hockey remained possible. While he had very few chances, his team was still intent on keeping their lead over Vancouver for as long as they could. The Canucks were hunting to level the game with their best players taking the challenge of beating Mrazek. The 25 year old Czech netminder was still a rock between the pipes denying them on their scoring chances while time was on the clock.

With three minutes left in the game and the fans of Vancouver living on a prayer, they received an answer with Reid Boucher scoring his second of the year on a key shot that tied the game at two all that led to desperate attempts by both teams. Detroit had the lead on shots to the net in their quest to not drop another game no matter what the result. As the last minutes came off the clock, it was apparent that the teams were going to overtime to solve the stalemate in 3 on 3.

The quest for a goal was quickly heavy in favor of the Red Wings who scored a massive power play to go four on three for two minutes. Detroit didn’t need all the time as their veteran stars had the ice looking for the right moment. Zetterberg got thing started along the boards waiting for the right shot to delivering a game winning chance. He found Abdelkader to the right of Miller to give him his fifth and first goal in 23 games. “Last time I scored was before my injury,” Abdelkader said to Fox Sports Detroit’s John Keating. “It felt good to get chances sometimes you need something going on and Z made a great play to me.”

Mrazek’s performance on the night was solid despite giving up two goals on the night. He made 25 saves for a .926 save percentage and his seventh win in overtime. The blocked shots in net and big glove saves assures him of another start which could come Friday against the Calgary Flames.