Elias Lindholm led the way with two goals and the Vancouver Canucks extended their winning streak to three games with a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.
Nikita Zadorov scored his first goal with Vancouver (37-12-6), while J.T. Miller added one of his own. Elias Pettersson dished out three assists.
“I think we were good, I think we were solid from the start. Another home win and we’re still trying to establish home ice here,” Zadorov said.
Thatcher Demko made 27 saves in the win.
J.T. Compher had the lone goal for Detroit (27-20-6), which dropped its second straight game.
Alex Lyon stopped 17 shots.
“I didn’t love my game tonight,” Lyon said. “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.”
Miller opened the scoring on an unassisted goal, firing a wrist shot past Lyon at 7:37 of the first period.
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Lindholm added to the lead at 9:31 when he wired a wrist shot off the post and in.
“I thought today we didn’t give them too much,” he said. “Obviously they have some skilled players and we’ll break a little bit but (Demko) made some big stops.”
Zadorov made it a 3-0 game 12:51 into the second. After a wraparound attempt from Pettersson, Zadorov got the puck and fired a point shot that made its way in through traffic.
Compher put the Red Wings on the board at 14:25 when he roofed the puck past Demko on a feed from Patrick Kane.
Lindholm netted his second of the night 12:59 into the third period with a one-timer on a pass from Petterson.
Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet paid tribute to his team’s effort in the win.
“I thought we stayed pretty compact and kept them to the outside,” he said. “It was a hard-fought win.… This whole week has been a tough week for us.”
Kane was blunt about his team’s opportunities with the man advantage.
“Power play has got to be better,” he said. “I wasn’t very good on the power play, so take responsibility for that.
“You get those chances you want to create momentum. We really didn’t give them much, even though they had some possession. It would have been nice to capitalize on something in the third when it was 3-1 or just any power play throughout the game.”
Red Wings coach Derek LaLonde said he was happy with his team’s effort but more could have been done.
“Tonight, we defended pretty well. We just didn’t generate enough, so we’ll see how the guys respond,” he said.
“As we’re finding out, when you play these upper-echelon, these top teams, there’s a fine line between winning and losing.”
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