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Samuelsson, Osgood lead Red Wings to fifth straight win

Oct 29, 2007 - 6:12 AM By Daniel Fung PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- The top-scoring team in the Western Conference showed just enough offensive firepower to get past the Vancouver Canucks.

Tomas Holmstrom and Jiri Hudler scored and Mikael Samuelsson tallied a goal and an assist to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the Canucks.

The Red Wings came out of the gate hot, putting 14 shots on net in the opening period, and fought off a pair of tying scores as backup goaltender Chris Osgood turned aside 27-of-29 shots to seal the victory.

"We didn't play as well as we would have liked," said Osgood, who improved his record to a perfect 5-0-0 on the season. "The pace of the game was pretty quick. The first two periods we were a little looser than usual in our own end. We played a real good third and buckled down and didn't give up much at all."

Vancouver jumped on top just 5:48 into the first frame when Brendan Morrison fired a centering pass to Trevor Linden, who put a shot on goal from the slot. Osgood made the initial save but was unable to corral the rebound, allowing left wing Matt Cooke to tip the loose puck into the right side of the net.

The assist for Linden was his first point of the season and was his 411th assist as a Canuck, tying the franchise record held by Stan Smyl.

The lead would be short-lived, however, as the Red Wings responded just 12 seconds later when Holmstrom deposited a rebound off Pavel Datsyuk's wrister from the left wing for his eighth goal of the season. Henrik Zetterberg drew an assist on the goal, extending his point streak to 12 games.

"What happened (tonight) was we responded, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "When they scored, we scored, so the game never got away from us."

Detroit took the lead late in the period after a miscue by Vancouver. Henrik Sedin led an odd-man rush into the Red Wings zone and had his pass deflect to Canucks' defenseman Kevin Bieksa, who fanned on his one-timer.

That led to a two-on-one break for Valtteri Filpulla and Mikael Samuelsson, who redirected an easy tap-in to give Detroit its first lead of the game with just 16 seconds left in the opening period.

"It bounced over Bieksa's stick and we got a 2-on-1 or maybe a 3-on-1," Samuelsson said. "I saw (Filppula) and I gave it to him and he gave it right back to me so it was an open net. It was a really good play by him."

Detroit had a glorious opportunity to double their lead just under nine minutes into the second frame despite being shorthanded. With Brett Lebda in the box serving a slashing penalty, Zetterberg managed to steal the puck from Canucks' defenseman Alex Edler at the blue line and went in on a clear-cut breakaway. But the NHL's leading scorer was stymied by Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo, who snagged Zetterberg's backhand attempt with his glove.

Luongo finished the contest with 29 saves on 32 chances.

"No, that's not good enough, sorry," Luongo said. "We played well, we played hard, but at the end of the day we didn't get any points."

Vancouver came back to tie the game with just under 4:59 remaining in the second period when Taylor Pyatt set up left wing Markus Naslund on the top of the crease for a one-timer. Osgood appeared to have control of the puck before it trickled in.

The goal stood despite protests from Detroit.

"I thought we played with more intensity and we generated a little bit more offense than we have (in the past)," said Naslund, who netted his fourth goal of the season. "Still, a couple of late goals in both the first and second periods, that I think cost us the game."

The Red Wings would get that one back late in the period with Jiri Hudler driving hard down the right wing and lifting a perfect shot glove-side on Luongo. The goal came with just one minute remaining in the second period.

"I saw (Luongo) going down and I just tried to get it up and it worked," Hudler said.

The Canucks got a scare with 8:50 remaining in the second when Kirk Maltby cross-checked Daniel Sedin from behind into an open gate at Vancouver's bench. Sedin laid on the ice for several seconds, holding the back of his head before getting back up, seemingly suffering from no ill-effects. Maltby received just a two-minute boarding minor for the hit.

The Canucks had one last chance with 28 seconds remaining in the game, but Morrison's would-be tying goal was waved off, giving Detroit its fifth straight win.

"You can't push me in the net anyways," Osgood said. "He's got to shoot it in. It wasn't as big of a deal as they made it out to be."