Red Wings Rally for OT Win over Canucks

The Detroit Red Wings bounced back from a 4-3 deficit late in the third period Wednesday night, scoring with 3:54 remaining to force overtime and adding another in the extra period for a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks.

Nicklas Lidstrom evened the game up on a Detroit power play, putting home the rebound of a Henrik Zetterberg shot into an open net from the left faceoff circle.

Zetterberg then gave the Red Wings the win, snapping a shot past Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo from the left faceoff dot with 2:01 left in the overtime period.

Danny Cleary had opened the game’s scoring at 8:12 of the first. Brian Rafalski sent a long pass from the Detroit zone to Todd Bertuzzi at the Vancouver blue line. Bertuzzi gained the zone and moved the puck across to Cleary, who fired it past Luongo from high in the right circle.

A power play goal by Henrik Sedin tied the game back up just 1:11 into the second. Ryan Kesler got the puck from Daniel Sedin in front of Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard and passed it off to Henrik at the edge of the crease for a tap into the open net.

Valtteri Filppula restored the Red Wings’ lead at 6:29 of the period, swatting the rebound of a Cleary chance past Luongo.

Daniel Sedin tied the game back up with 8:39 left in the second, scoring a power play goal that was nearly a carbon-copy of his brother’s.

Former Red Wing Mikael Samuelsson gave the Canucks their first lead with 21 seconds left in the second. Brad Stuart couldn’t hold the puck in the Vancouver end and the Canucks broke out on a three-on-two. After gaining the Detroit zone, Henrik Sedin dropped it to Samuelsson for a snap shot from the top of the left circle that deflected off of Stuart’s stick and past Howard.

Zetterberg’s first of the night evened things back up. At 1:54 of the first he snuck a low-angle shot between the post and Luongo’s pad to make it 3-3.

Jeff Tambellini beat Howard with 7:50 remaining to put the Canucks back out in front before Detroit’s comeback.

The Canucks finished the night two-for-three on the power play. The Red Wings went one-for-four.

Howard stopped 35 of 39 shots on the night while Luongo made 40 saves on 45 shots.

The Red Wings are back in action Thursday night when the visit the St. Louis Blues.

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The Red Wings lost forward Pavel Datsyuk to a wrist injury late in the first period. He did not return… Ruslan Salei’s assist on Zetterberg’s first goal was his 200th career point.