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Thursday, 17 January 2008
FINAL SO
2 - 3
FINAL SO 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canucks 0 2 0 0 0-3 2
Red Wings 1 1 0 0 1-3 3
GOAL SCORERS

VAN:   H. Sedin (15:21 - 2nd) , M. Naslund (18:08 - 2nd)
DET:   D. Cleary (18:16 - 1st) , D. Cleary (01:51 - 2nd) , H. Zetterberg (00:00 - SO)
GOALIES

VAN: R. Luongo (L)
 DET: D. Hasek (W)
Red Wings 3, Canucks 2, SO
Associated Press

PIC OF THE GAME
(click for full view)



DETROIT (AP)
-Markus Naslund didn't get crack at a dramatic game-winner in a shootout, but he did earn his team a single point in his milestone 1,000th NHL game.

The Canucks captain tied the game in the second period with his 16th of the season to complete a two-goal comeback, but could do no more as the Red Wings edged Vancouver 3-2 at the Joe Louis.

Henrik Zetterberg scored the only goal of the shootout after the Canucks pushed the game to overtime, then survived a full two-minute Detroit power play when Roberto Luongo was whistled for delay of game.

"[The comeback] was really big," said Henrik Sedin. "We're .500 on the road now which is pretty decent against the team we were playing. The way we came back too - we out played them for the last half of the game - was a good sign."

Dan Cleary scored twice for Detroit in regulation and Dominik Hasek made 26 saves as the NHL-leading Red Wings snapped a three-game losing streak.

Henrik  had a goal and an assist for Vancouver while Luongo made 47 saves for the Canucks.

GAME EXTRAS
"We threw a lot of shots at Luongo. He's a great goalie, so that's what you have to do," Cleary said. "Dom shut them down. He was great for us."

Zetterberg scored the winning goal in the shootout by slipping a backhander between Luongo's pads after a fake.

"I could have gone high, but he opened up the five-hole," Zetterberg said. "But Luongo played a great game."

The Canucks' goaltender praised Zetterberg's move.

"It was a simple, yet brilliant play," Luongo said. "He carried from his forehand to his backhand, waited for the opening and put it five-hole."

Vancouver scored twice in the last four minutes of the second period to tie the game 2-2 after Detroit held a wide edge in play for the bulk of the first a second periods out shooting the Canucks by a wide margin.

"We started fore checking and got our legs going," said Henrik Sedin. "The first half [of the game] we were just sitting back waiting for them. You can't do that against a team like [Detroit]."

"He (Luongo) gave us a chance to tie up the game and we did it," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said.

Sedin made it 2-1 with 4:39 left when he put a rebound into an open net for his ninth goal. Naslund tied it with 1:52 remaining when his attempted pass from the right circle deflected in off the skate of Detroit defenseman Brian Rafalski.

3 STARS
Daniel Cleary
Scored the only two regulation goals for the Wings, but didn't get a crack in the shootout.
Roberto Luongo
Stopped 47 pucks, killed his own DOG penalty in OT, and was beaten just once in the shootout.
Henrik Zetterberg
Hank Z gets the obligatory nod because he won it in the shootout, but didn't do much else.
Less than two minutes earlier, during a Red Wings power play, Rafalski had the puck in the slot and Luongo was down and out. But Rafalski's shot hit the crossbar.

"I almost had to laugh," Hasek said. "His shot hits the crossbar on one end and the puck goes in off his skate at the other end."

Cleary opened the scoring with 1:16 left in the first period when he tipped Andreas Lilja's shot from the left point out of the air and past Luongo.

Cleary's second goal, his 18th of the season, made it 2-0. He beat rookie Mason Raymond off the boards and tipped in Valtteri Filppula's pass, which came to him through his legs at 1:51 of the second period.

Filppula won a battle for the puck along the right boards, skated across the top of the right circle and made the pass to Cleary.

"Fil made a real headsy play," Cleary said. "Drew a lot of guys to him. I just went to the net. I just tried to get a stick on it as much as I could."

Vancouver didn't have a shot from the eight-minute mark of the first period until 7:32 of the second period, a total of 19:32.

"Obviously, in the first 30 minutes they gave us a lesson in how to generate offense," Vigneault said.

In all, Detroit put 49 shots on the Canucks net.

"They throw a lot of pucks at the net, but I don't think they had 49 scoring chances," said Henrik Sedin. "But they throw everything at the net and try to create chances that way. It's a tough game to play."

"Every point is critical now so we'll have to be ready Saturday."

Notes: Detroit RW Dallas Drake missed his second game due to a sore knee. ... Naslund played in his 1,000th NHL game. ... Canucks C Ryan Kesler is a native of the Detroit suburb of Livonia.
Three star selections
1st:   DANIEL CLEARY
2nd:   ROBERTO LUONGO
3rd:   HENRIK ZETTERBERG
Winning Goaltender
Dominik Hasek

Losing Goaltender
Roberto Luongo

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STANDINGS

WESTERN CONFERENCE
  TEAM GP W L OT GF GA PTS
1 p - CHI 48 36 7 5 155 102 77
2 y - ANA 48 30 12 6 140 118 66
3 y - VAN 48 26 15 7 127 121 59
4 x - STL 48 29 17 2 129 115 60
5 x - LAK 48 27 16 5 133 118 59
6 x - SJS 48 25 16 7 124 116 57
7 x - DET 48 24 16 8 124 115 56
8 x - MIN 48 26 19 3 122 127 55
9 CBJ 48 24 17 7 120 119 55
10 PHX 48 21 18 9 125 131 51
11 DAL 48 22 22 4 130 142 48
12 EDM 48 19 22 7 125 134 45
13 CGY 48 19 25 4 128 160 42
14 NSH 48 16 23 9 111 139 41
15 COL 48 16 25 7 116 152 39