Vancouver falls to Detroit, but Samuelsson and Canucks give mighty fight


The Detroit Red Wings’ big win came at a heavy price.

Henrik Zetterberg’s second goal of the game at 2:59 of overtime gave Detroit a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.

But the Red Wings also lost star center Pavel Datsyuk for at least four weeks with a broken bone in his hand or wrist, according to coach Mike Babcock.

“It’s unfortunate, there’s nothing we can do about it. We got to find a way to dig in, just like we did tonight to get the game done,” Babcock said. “More opportunity for someone else. We know Pav’s a good player and we know he’s coming back. He gets a little bit of vacation so he’s ready for the playoffs.”

Datsyuk, who has 12 goals and 39 points in 33 games, will not need surgery and his hand will be placed in a cast.

Datsyuk was hurt with about 1:30 left in the first period when he tripped over former Red Wings’ teammate Mikael Samuelsson in the Vancouver zone and landed on his right hand-wrist area.

Nicklas Lidstrom’s third-period power-play goal tied the game at 4-4. Zetterberg also added an assist on Lidstrom’s goal. Danny Cleary and Valtteri Filppula also scored for Detroit. Brian Rafalski had three assists and Jimmy Howard stopped 35 shots.

The Red Wings, first in the Western Conference after passing Dallas with the win, lost their previous two games and are only 4-4-2 in their past 10 games.

“It was huge. You look at the standings, everything’s gotten pretty condensed here so every point matters right now,” Howard said.

Henrik and Daniel Sedin each had a goal and an assist and Mikael Samuelsson and Jeff Tambellini also scored for Vancouver, third in the Western Conference and three points behind Detroit. Ryan Kesler had two assists and Roberto Luongo made 40 saves.

Click Here To Continue Reading Article