Rarely does a game with so much hype live up to it's billing. This wasn't one of those games.
The Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings put on an amazing show Thursday night in a 4-3 Canucks shootout win in front of a packed house at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. It was so good in fact, that I forgot to PVR tonight's episode of Jersey Shore.
Not only did Vancouver pull within one point of the Wings for the Conference and NHL lead, but they also snapped Detroit's streak of 23 straight wins on home ice.
Alex Burrows scored the lone shootout goal in the win. In classic Burrows fashion, he faked to snap his stick over his leg as if to say " the streak is snapped."
This is exactly why Canucks fans love #14, and probably exactly why others hate him.
Daniel Sedin scored his 27th and 28th goals of the year, including the game-tying goal with only 16 seconds remaining. Cody Hodgson also scored for Vancouver.
Darren Helm, Kyle Quincey and Justin Abdelkader scored for Detroit who were without their all-star center Pavel Datsyuk.
The Canucks dominated the Wings in the first period and probably deserved a better fate at the intermission in which they were down 1-0. Darren Helm flubbed a shot from the slot that fooled Roberto Luongo blocker side to give the home team the lead.
Daniel Sedin scored his first of the game midway through the second period to tie the game up heading into the third stanza.
Kyle Quincey - acquired yesterday in a deal that sent Detroit's first round pick to Tampa Bay - scored six minutes into the third frame to give Detroit a 2-1 lead. Seven minutes later, good-looking Canucks rookie Cody Hodgson scored his 16th goal of the year to once again tie the game up.
The tie didn't last long, however, as Justin Abdelkader banged home a loose puck a mere 20 seconds later to give Detroit their third lead of the game.
The Wings looked to have the game under wraps and looked to extend their NHL record home winning streak to 24 until Daniel scored his second of the night with only 16 seconds left as Vancouver had the extra man with Luongo on the bench.
Overtimed proved nothing, except for that these teams are as evenly-matched as any two in the league.
Roberto Luongo was spectacular as usual, stopping 33 shots, along with stopping all three of Detroit's shootout attempts. Jimmy Howard was equally magnificent stopping 40 shots in regualtion and overtime.
Howard make a ludicrous save on David Booth with a minute left in regulation as Booth sped through and split the Detroit defense and came in on a breakaway. Booth, playing in his home state for the first time as a pro, deked forehand only to have Howard stick out his right pad and make the incredible stop.
With the two points, Vancouver now sits only one point back of Detroit in the NHL and Western Conference standings. Detroit earned a single point with the shootout loss.
Vancouver continues their hellish road trip tomorrow evening in New Jersey, then an afternoon affair with the Stars in Dallas on Sunday before finishing up with a date with the Coyotes in Phoenix on Tuesday.
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