After Delay, Red Wings Down Canucks, 5-3

A 35-minute delay caused by a power failure at Joe Louis Arena didn’t slow the Detroit Red Wings down as they cruised to a 5-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday afternoon.

Just 29 seconds into the game, lights over half of the arena bowl went out and the game was stopped. Under three minutes of playing time later, the Red Wings showed that at least the red light was working.

Niklas Kronwall rifled a shot from the left faceoff circle through traffic and past Vancouver netminder Ryan Miller to open the game’s scoring at 3:15 of the first.

With 8:44 left in the period, Gustav Nyquist’s power play tally made it 2-0 for Detroit. Henrik Zetterberg sent a pass from the right circle over to Nyquist at the left faceoff dot for a shot into the wide open side of the net.

Linden Vey would pull the Canucks to within a goal at 2:37 of the second period with a power play tally of his own. Kronwall’s clearing attempt up the middle of the ice went right to Vey at the edge of the slot for a shot back past Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard.

The Red Wings restored their two goal margin with 5:36 left in the middle frame on another goal with the extra attacker. The rebound of a Tomas Tatar chance came out to Pavel Datsyuk to Miller’s left. Both Datsyuk and defenseman Luca Sbisa swatted at the puck, with it sailing past Miller, off Vancouver forward Nick Bonino, and into the net.

Again, the Canucks cut the lead to one, as former Detroit prospect Shawn Matthias scored with 7:34 remaining in the third period. Matthias deflected a Yannick Weber shot past Howard to make it 3-2.

Danny DeKeyser put Detroit up by a pair for the third time just 1:10 later when his blast from the blue line deflected off Bonino and beat Miller to make it 4-2.

Vey’s second of the night, scored with Miller on the bench for an extra attacker with 3:50 left on the clock, pulled the Canucks to back within one. To Howard’s right, Vey kicked a Matthias pass back towards the net and got enough of his stick on it for the goal to stand up to video review.

Datsyuk’s second would finish things off, however. Datsyuk dumped the puck towards Vancouver’s empty crease from his own zone and Darren Helm outraced Alexander Edler to protect the puck as is slowly slid into the net with fifty seconds remaining.

The Red Wings finished the night with two power play goals while the Canucks scored once on three tries with the man-advantage.

Howard stopped 30 of the 33 shots he faced. Miller made 25 saves on 29 shots.

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Defenseman Brendan Smith returned to the Detroit lineup, having recovered from his infected hand. Xavier Ouellet was sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins to make room… Daniel Cleary, Joakim Andersson, and Brian Lashoff were healthy scratches for Detroit… Justin Abdelkader did not play the third period after suffering a shoulder injury. He is listed as day-to-day.