Red Wings Drop to Second with Loss to Canucks

The Detroit Red Wings fell to second place in the Central Division Saturday night with a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. Earlier in the night, the Nashville Predators had defeated the Dallas Stars to leapfrog over the Red Wings.

Detroit got the first goal but the scoring was all Vancouver after that.

Pavel Datsyuk extended his point streak to 10 games with a goal 6:05 into the first. With the Red Wings on a two-man advantage, Mathieu Schneider sent a pass from up high down to Datsyuk in the right circle to lift a shot over the shoulder of goalie Roberto Luongo.

Bryan Smolinski replied for the Canucks with 8:19 remaining in the period on a backhanded wraparound attempt just after the expiration of a Detroit penalty.

Lukas Krajicek put Vancouver out in front when Detroit netminder Dominik Hasek was caught wandering out of his crease with 9:02 remaining in the second. Daniel Sedin attempted a wraparound that Hasek got back to stop just in time but the puck came out to Krajicek to put into the emtpy top half of the net.

After a giveaway on a Detroit power play 6:12 later, Brendan Morrison scored on a two-on-one with Matt Cooke to put the Canucks up by a pair.

Tervor Linden added an empty net goal when the Red Wings failed to gain control of the puck in the Vancouver zone with Hasek on the bench.

Hasek stopped 35 of 38 shots against in the loss while Luongo made 32 saves on 33 shots.

Datsyuk’s goal was the lone power play marker of the game. Detroit finished the night with eight chances with the extra attacker and Vancouver had nine tries.

The Red Wings will complete their abbreviated Western Canadian road trip on Monday when they visit the Calgary Flames.