Red Wings Snap Skid With 2-1 Win in Vancouver

The Detroit Red Wings ended their four-game losing streak on Wednesday night, rallying for a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks in the first game of a four-game Western Canadian road swing.

Daniel Alfredsson got the Red Wings on the board with 8:23 remaining in the second period. The veteran forward gained the Canucks’ zone down the right wing, then sent a pass up high to defenseman Kyle Quincey. Quincey sent it down to Brendan Smith, pinching at the side of the net, before Smith put it back into the slot where Alfredsson had jumped in for a quick wrister past Vancouver netminder Roberto Luongo.

Tomas Tatar put Detroit out in front with just 1:02 left in the middle period. Tatar carried the puck down the right side and held up just inside the blue line, snapping a shot that found its way through traffic and seemed to fool Luongo, beating him to make it 2-1. It was his first goal of the season.

The Canucks had opened the game’s scoring with 5:48 remaining in the first period. Ryan Stanton fed Daniel Sedin on a stretch pass to gain the Detroit zone, then Sedin dropped it off to brother Henrik. From the high slot, Henrik sent the puck down to Daniel at the bottom of the left faceoff circle, where he threw a shot from an acute angle in behind Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard, still positioned at the top of the crease.

Howard finished the night with 19 saves on 20 shots against. Luongo stopped 25 of 27 Detroit chances.

Neither team scored a power play goal on three chances with the man-advantage each.

The Red Wings continue their road trip on Friday in Calgary.

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Patrick Eaves made his season debut, returning from injury to play 7:23… Johan Franzen missed the game due to injury. He is expected to return on Friday. Luke Glendening was called up from the Grand Rapids Griffins to take his roster spot… Rookie defenseman Danny DeKeyser skated in place of the injured Jonathan Ericsson on the top pairing with Niklas Kronwall, getting 26:42 of ice time.