Red Wings Begin Road Trip with Loss to Canucks

The Detroit Red Wings scored the opening goal of Sunday night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks but were unable to put the puck in the net for the rest of the night, allowing four unanswered goals en route to a 4-1 loss.

The loss is the first for the Red Wings on the road this season. Their seven-game road winning streak to start the season tied an NHL record.

The Red Wings got their lone goal just 5:35 into the game on a lucky bounce. Pavel Datsyuk crashed the Vancouver net and had the puck poked away from him by goalie Dan Cloutier. It bounced off defender Sami Salo and into the net for a Detroit power play goal.

Vancouver took over just 5:11 later, when Todd Bertuzzi scored the first of his three goals to put the Canucks on the board. Jason Williams lost the puck behind the Detroit goal and Markus Naslund was stopped on a wraparound attempt. Detroit goalie Manny Legace couldn’t cover up to get a stop in play and Bertuzzi poked the puck free, putting it past Legace and tying the game.

Bertuzzi scored again with 4:34 remaining in the opening period. With the Canucks on the power play, he snuck in behind the Red Wings’ defense and took a long pass from Nolan Baumgartner at the Detroit blue line. A half-step ahead of Jiri Fischer, he skated through the Red Wings zone and faked around Legace, beating him to the stick side to give the Canucks the lead.

Shortly after an odd play that saw play continue for quite awhile after Kirk Maltby crashed into the Vancouver net and knocked it off its moorings, the Canucks struck again.

At 4:45 of the second, Daniel Sedin sent the puck from the right circle to the top of the crease, where it was deflected off of Anson Carter’s skate and between Legace’s pads.

Bertuzzi completed his hat trick with 4:59 left in the middle frame. He took another long pass, this one from Mattias Ohlund, at the Detroit blue line and was left all alone to beat Legace with a backhand shot to the glove side.

The Red Wings limited the Canucks to only one shot in the third period but were unable to score any goals of their own to challenge Vancouver’s lead.

Cloutier finished the game with 34 saves on 35 shots, while Legace stopped 22 of the 26 shots he faced.

The Red Wings were 1-for-6 on the power play. Vancouver scored on one of their eight chances with the man-advantage.

Detroit will be back in action on Wednesday in Calgary.