Music: {allcanada} Miller shines in Canucks' win against Red Wings

Saturday, January 3, 2015

{allcanada} Miller shines in Canucks' win against Red Wings

Jurassic Park / The Lost World: Jurassic Park

VANCOUVER-- Vancouver Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller had to be great to get a rare win against his brother, forward Drew Miller, and the Detroit Red Wings.

Ryan Miller made 29 saves, Alexander Edler and Radim Vrbata scored on the power play and Henrik Sedin scored two empty net goals to lead the Canucks to 4-1 win against the Red Wings at Rogers Arena on Saturday night.

Tomas Tatar ended Miller's shutout with 3:30 left and goalie Jimmy Howard pulled for an extra attacker. After blowing third period leads twice in the past three games, captain Henrik Sedin ended any doubt by scoring his 200th goal into the empty net with 1:51 left.

Sedin, who also had an assist, added a second empty net goal with 32 seconds left, but Miller was the big story for Vancouver.

Ryan Miller was 2-10-2 in his career against Detroit, and had lost seven of eight with his brother Drew in the Red Wings lineup. But the Michigan native made a great early save against Drew, and was exceptional against consecutive Detroit power plays in the third period that included a 5-on-3 for seven seconds.

With his parents watching in the stands, Miller robbed Pavel Datsyuk twice in the same sequence 2:30 into the third period, throwing out his right pad to stop a quick shot from the slot and then sliding right to left to deny Datsyuk on a backdoor chance.

After Howard stopped Henrik Sedin on a shorthanded breakaway, Miller stuffed Stephen Weiss on a jam play atop the crease before the second penalty expired.

Miller made another great left pad stop off Tomas Jurco in the slot shortly after the power plays were over, and Vrbata converted his own rebound for an insurance goal two minutes later.

Henrik Sedin also had an assist and twin brother Daniel Sedin had two assists as Vancouver (22-12-3) bounced back after blowing a late lead with two goals in the final 2:07 against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. The Canucks improved to 4-1-1 in their past six games and moved into second place in the Pacific Division.

Howard finished with 20 saves for the Red Wings (20-10-9) who began a six-game road trip. Detroit had won three straight games and had points in eight straight (6-0-2) against the Canucks.

Playing outside the Eastern time zone for the second time this season, Detroit controlled play early. But Miller kept it scoreless with a great save on Drew after he was left alone in the slot to one-time a pass from behind the Canucks net eight minutes in. It was the Red Wings last shot of the first period.

Vancouver gained momentum by holding Detroit's third-ranked power play without a shot on a chance midway through the period, and had the final six shots, forcing Howard to make several good saves.

With Henrik Zetterberg in the penalty box for slashing, Edler opened the scoring on a power play 1:48 into the second period with a one-time slap shot from the point that beat a screened Howard high on his glove side. It was Edler's first goal in 23 games, and the fourth power play goal against Detroit's second-ranked penalty kill in 13 games and 44 chances.

Vancouver had two chances with the man advantage in the second period, but couldn't extend the lead.

Miller made a couple of saves before the second period ended. He got in front of forward Tomas Tatar's one-timer from the high slot and denied center Riley Sheahan with his left pad on the rebound midway through the period. Miller also got his glove on a Datsyuk redirection off the rush, reaching back with his left hand as he slid to his right.

Avatar (2009) / Alien: The Director's Cut