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Zetterberg propels Red Wings past Canucks

Nov 3, 2008 - 6:34 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- Henrik Zetterberg recorded a goal and an assist as the Detroit Red Wings posted a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.

Mikael Samuelsson scored a goal and set up another and defenseman Brian Rafalski also tallied for the Red Wings, who scored all of their goals on the power play to finish off their five-game road trip with a 3-1-1 record.

Henrik Sedin and Kyle Wellwood scored for Vancouver, which was coming off a 7-6 shootout win over Anaheim on Friday. While, Detroit excelled on the power play, the Canucks failed to convert any of their seven man advantages.

"Obviously, that was the difference in the game," Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said.

"Their power play is really outstanding. They keep it simple and high percentage. They get pucks to the net and they get people in front of the net and they score a lot of goals. And obviously, tonight their power play was really good and ours wasn't able to finish."

Chris Osgood stopped 25 shots for Detroit, which jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Samuelsson and Rafalski.

But it was Zetterberg's power-play tally with 68 seconds left in the second period that proved to be the difference. Zetterberg slipped a backhander past goaltender Roberto Luongo for his eighth goal of the season to give the Red Wings a 3-1 lead.

"They had (Jiri) Hudler on the back door and it was clear in the slot so I just tried to go in one-on-one with Luongo," Zetterberg said. "I was lucky to get it through."

Zetterberg's tally proved to be crucial as Wellwood halved the deficit with a backhand of his own with 7:20 remaining in the third period.

"I think after they got the two-goal lead there they played a little too defensively and we were able to get a lot of shots at the net," Wellwood said.

Osgood then stopped the next 12 shots he faced to preserve the win.

"We were buzzing there, we had some good chances," Vancouver left wing Alex Burrows said of the third period. "Osgood made some big saves and we got some rebounds on him, got some shots through traffic but we couldn't find a way (to tie the game)."

Samuelsson's one-timer from the left faceoff circle beat Luongo to open the scoring with 6:30 left in the opening period. Rafalski added Detroit's second power-play goal at 6:29 of the second after his one-timer found its way through traffic.

"It's been good for us," said Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock of the power play. "Tonight it was the game obviously."

Sedin halved the deficit just under four minutes later.

Luongo stopped 20 shots for Vancouver.