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Vancouver's Luongo clips Red Wings

Dec 22, 2011 - 8:24 AM Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - Roberto Luongo made 38 saves, backstopping the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Rogers Arena.

Chris Higgins, Cody Hodgson, Alexandre Burrows and Alexander Edler lit the lamp, while Jannik Hansen added a pair of assists for the Canucks, who have won three straight overall and six of their last seven at home.

"[The Red Wings] always make for some exciting games," said Luongo. "They are fun to play in. They shoot a lot. That's the way I like it."

Todd Bertuzzi and Drew Miller scored, while Jimmy Howard stopped 21-of-25 shots in defeat for the Wings, who had their two-game winning streak halted.

Trailing by two, the Red Wings elected to pull Howard with less than two minutes to play in regulation. Daniel Sedin was then whistled for tripping with 48.8 seconds to play, giving the Wings a 6-on-4 power play. They got some good pressure on the Vancouver net, but Luongo kept the puck out, preserving the two-goal win.

Vancouver opened the scoring at 9:36 of the first stanza when Mason Raymond picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and raced into the offensive zone on the right wing. Raymond cut in on goal and fired a shot that was stopped by Howard, but Higgins pounced on the rebound and chipped it into the net to give the Canucks the 1-0 lead.

The Canucks scored again just 21 seconds later when Hansen, holding the puck on the left wing, found a cutting Hodgson, who walked in and blasted a slap shot past Howard from the slot.

The Red Wings responded at 13:46 when Ian White fired a shot from the right point that was blocked in front, but Bertuzzi was there to jam it home on the doorstep to make it 2-1.

The Canucks made it 3-1 at 15:40 when Sedin wristed a shot toward the net from just inside the blue line. Just as the puck arrived on net, Burrows drifted in front of Howard and deftly tipped it past the Wings' netminder.

Detroit cut it to a one-goal game again at 16:20 of the second stanza when Darren Helm fired a shot from the high slot that was deflected past Luongo by Miller, who was parked in front.

The Canucks, though, made it 4-2 3:30 into the final period while down a man. Hansen poked the puck out the neutral zone and was off to the races down the left wing. He went to his backhand and got a weak shot off while crashing into Howard, but Edler was following the play and fired it into a wide-open net.

"I'm just sick and tired of getting run over," said Howard. "It's every single game."

Game Notes

The Canucks are 17-4-0 this season when scoring the first goal. Vancouver is also 16-0-0 when leading after two periods this season...Detroit finished 0- for-4 on the power play, while Vancouver did not have any power play chances...The Canucks will battle the Calgary Flames on Friday, while the Red Wings will face the Flames on Thursday.