Canucks cruise to fourth straight win
Red Wings' February funk continues
Last Updated: Sunday, February 24, 2008 | 9:27 AM ET
CBC Sports
The Vancouver Canucks continued to enjoy their resurgent February on Saturday night, while the Detroit Red Wings likely can't wait for the end of this miserable month.
On the strength of another solid all-around performance, the Canucks toppled the Red Wings 4-1 at home for their fourth straight win.
Vancouver Canucks' Alexander Edler, right, celebrates his first-period goal with teammate Mattias Ohlund on Saturday.
(Chuck Stoody/Canadian Press)
Roberto Luongo continued his hot play, allowing just one goal on 29 shots for the Canucks (32-22-8), who improve to 22-0-0 this season when holding a lead after two periods.
"We're feeling good about ourselves, about our game right now," Luongo said.
Ryan Kesler notched his 15th and 16th goals on the season for Vancouver in the third period, setting a new career high for the defensive-minded forward, and breaking the game wide open in the process.
"I know my first job is to be defensive, but it's always nice to get the offensive players worrying a little more about defence than their offence," Kesler said. "So when you can chip in a couple like tonight, it always seems to put their [top] line back on their heels."
On his first goal, Kesler stripped Detroit's Brett Lebda at the Vancouver blue-line, raced up ice and beat goaltender Jimmy Howard between his legs 3:31 into the third period to give his team a two-goal cushion.
"Just by playing [Friday] night and being a little depleted, we didn't have the kind of energy to push, so the third goal was just the nail in the coffin," said Detroit head coach Mike Babcock.
Kesler then kept the puck on a two-on-one breakaway with three minutes remaining and again beat Howard five-hole to cement the victory.
"It worked the first time, might as well try it the second time," Kesler said.
Defencemen Alexander Edler and Sami Salo also scored for the Canucks, who before Saturday's game were in the eighth and final playoff spot in the suffocating Western Conference.
The standings were so tight that Vancouver entered play on Saturday just three points out of the Northwest Division lead but just two points ahead of the idle ninth-place Colorado Avalanche.
With the win, the Canucks instead vaulted into four-way tie for fifth in the wild West.
Pavel Datsyuk provided the only goal for the league-leading Red Wings (42-17-5), who extended their futility in February.
After winning eight straight games between Jan. 17 and Feb. 5, the Red Wings looked unstoppable. Since that point, they've gone just 1-7-1 and have been outscored 26-15 in that stretch.
"We'd like to score more," Babcock said. "We're not as smooth on the back end right now."
Injuries to Detroit's talented defence corps are the main reason for the uneven play, as Nicklas Lidstrom (knee), Brian Rafalski (groin), Niklas Kronwall (shoulder) and Chris Chelios (leg) are all out of the lineup.
"We didn't communicate well enough," said Red Wing's defenceman Derek Meech. "We wasted too much energy trying to make plays coming out of our zone.
"We have some younger (defencemen) in our lineup and we have to know we can trust each other."
With Dominik Hasek out with a sore hip and Chris Osgoode getting the start on Friday, Howard got a rare start and looked sharp in defeat, making 31 saves.
Canucks strike first
Edler opened the game's scoring with his seventh goal at the 14:26 mark of the first period.
After Henrik Sedin won a faceoff in the Detroit zone, the puck was passed across the blue-line to Edler, who's long point shot deflected off a Detroit defenceman and past Howard to put Vancouver up 1-0.
Datsyuk then tied the game while on the power play by deflecting a long shot from Meech. The Detroit sniper's 22nd goal of the season levelled the score at 1-1 at 16:54 of the first.
Salo put the Canucks ahead for good while on the power play in the second period. The defenceman pinched in the slot, took a pass from teammate Henrik Sedin and wired a bullet past Howard for his fourth goal of the season at 10:39 of the second.
With files from the Canadian Press
