Music: {allcanada} Red Wings hold off Canucks to end four-game slide

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

{allcanada} Red Wings hold off Canucks to end four-game slide

VANCOUVER -- Tomas Tatar's first goal of the season was a big one.

The 22-year-old forward, playing his fifth game of the season, scored the go-ahead goal on a long wrist shot with 62 seconds left in the second period and Jimmy Howard made 19 saves as the Detroit Red Wings snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Daniel Alfredsson tied the game at 1-1 midway through the second period, and Tatar put Detroit ahead with a shot off the rush from well above the top of the circle that caught defenseman Christopher Tanev setting an inadvertent screen. Tanev lifted his foot at the last instant to get out of the way, but Luongo didn't see the shot until it was between his legs.

After being outshot in eight of their past 10 games, there was a lot of talk from Detroit before the game about tightening up defensively. The Red Wings held the Canucks, who outshot the Washington Capitals 41-19 during a 3-2 win on Monday, to a season-low 20 shots.

Daniel Sedin scored and Luongo finished with 25 saves, including a couple great point-blanks stops in the final five minutes for the Canucks, who had their win streak snapped at four games.

The Red Wings loaded up their top line, putting Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg back together with Todd Bertuzzi. But it was the Canucks' No. 1 unit, with Ryan Kesler moved up with Daniel and Henrik Sedin, that opened the scoring at 14:12 of the first period.

After making a pretty drop pass to twin brother Henrik off the rush, Daniel faded into the right corner and took the return feed unchecked before firing a sharp-angled shot into an empty net after Howard got stranded atop his crease looking for a shot from Henrik.

It was Daniel Sedin's fourth goal and seventh point during a five-game point streak; Henrik has three goals and 12 points during a 10-game point streak of his own. The Sedins almost added to those totals midway through the second period, but Howard slid hard from left to right through his crease to deny Daniel on a backdoor one-timer after a perfect cross-ice backhand pass from Henrik.

Less than two minutes later, Alfredsson tied it with his third goal since joining the Red Wings as a free agent in the summer. The 40-year-old went hard to the top of the crease during a 4-on-3 and fired a loose puck that hit the post, hit the back of Luongo's leg and slid over the goal line.

Vancouver moved Alexandre Burrows, playing his second game after missing 12 with a broken foot, back up into his old spot - in place of Kesler - with the Sedins for the third period. But Burrows whiffed on an open look from the high slot off the rush six minutes in.

The Canucks' power play, which has four goals all season and came in ranked 28th, couldn't take advantage of an early third-period opportunity, managing just two shots and finishing 0-for-3.

Luongo made up for the earlier gaffe with a sprawling right pad save to take an apparent goal away from Justin Abdelkader after a 3-on-1 backdoor pass from Tatar with five minutes left, and stuffed Bertuzzi from in tight 90 seconds later. But the Canucks failed to take advantage at the other end, with Kesler whistling a shot wide in the final seconds.

The Marshall Mathers LP2 - Eminem