Red Wings’ attack frozen out in loss at Vancouver
The Detroit Red Wings may plan to be quiet at next month’s trade deadline, but the Vancouver Canucks made a solid argument for the Wings adding some pieces at some point with a 4-1 victory Thursday night.
Canucks trade additions Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov accounted for three goals — with Zadorov’s score his first as a Canuck — and the Red Wings dropped their second straight as part of their four-game road trip.
The Wings, meanwhile, mustered just 13 shots over the first two periods while falling into a 3-1 hole. But whereas they were able to rally from that deficit against the Canucks on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena, the Rogers Arena ice proved less hospitable in the third period as the Wings were blanked on 14 shots in the final frame.
“I thought we stayed pretty compact and kept them to the outside,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet told reporters. “It was a hard fought win … this whole week has been a tough week for us.”
The Canadian portion of the trip concludes with a visit to Calgary to play the Flames at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Red Wings (27-20-6) will be looking for their second straight win at the Saddledome (after beating the Flames, 5-2, on Feb. 16, 2023) after a six-game skid there lasting nearly eight years. After that, the Wings will be off to Seattle for a Presidents Day matinee Monday against the Kraken.
Power play unplugged
The combination of the Wings’ power play, with a 23.5% success rate good for 11th in the league, and the Canucks’ penalty kill, 15th at 80%, seemed to bode well for a goal on the man advantage. But the Wings failed to score on any of their five power plays, as well as a 2-minute five-on-four stretch caused in the third period by matching penalties and head coach Derek Lalonde’s call to pull Alex Lyon for an extra
skater.
Perhaps their best chance came on the fourth power play, 5:14 into the third period. Just 5 seconds later, with the Wings moving the puck on the left side, Patrick Kane sped from the blue line toward the crease. But his slap shot on the net was blocked by Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko, who slid over just in time to stop it square with no rebound.
Turnovers hurt
The Wings fell behind 7:37 into the first period on a rough play by defenseman Jeff Petry. Trying to clear the puck, Petry sent it off the boards toward the blue line, only for J.T. Miller to intercept it and zip a shot past Lyon, appearing in his 10th straight game for the Wings.
“I didn’t love my game tonight,” Lyon told reporters. “I’ll say it flat out, but that being said, I gave up seven last game and so for me, it was
just about re-engaging and then, obviously, you give up two in the first, quick, and it turns into a mental grind.”
Less than 2 minutes later, the Canucks made it a 2-0 game as Lindholm — brought over in a blockbuster Jan. 31 trade from the Flames — scored his third goal with Vancouver, snapping a shot from high in the zone past Lyon on his blocker side.
Demko’d again
The Wings weren’t any luckier in the second period. Soon after killing off a double-minor penalty on Petry (a high-stick that drew the blood of Nils Höglander), Daniel Sprong received the puck from behind the net with a nearly open net in front him. He launched a soft wrist shot and Demko slid over, barely getting a piece of it with his right pad to send it floating into the air, where Demko was able to glove it.
About 4 minutes later, Zadorov, a defenseman who joined the Canucks from the Flames in a November trade for draft picks, made it a 3-0 lead for Vancouver when he fired a shot from near the boards above the left circle that snuck past Lyon, screened by Lindholm at the front of the crease.
But the Wings finally broke though on their 11th shot of the game, 94 seconds after Zadorov’s goal as Kane fed J.T. Compher with a slight poke of the puck to the left side of the slot. Compher then wristed it past Demko, just the third goal allowed by Demko to the Wings in three starts. The goal was the 100th of his career for Compher, a Michigan alumnus, and his 12th of the season.
Pett sounds
Vancouver’s edge wasn’t entirely the result of trade additions: Elias Pettersson, who entered tied for the team lead with 69 points picked up three assists — on each of the Canucks’ final three goals — giving him 44 on the season. He proved a stellar teammate, if not a great goal scorer, late in the third period, as he opted to pass to Lindholm for the potential hat trick rather than fire on the Wings’ empty net. Unfortunately for the two Eliases, the Wings broke up the pass to keep it a three-goal deficit.