Tatar and Wings Slip past Canucks

The Detroit Red Wings four game losing stint has come to a close. With a showcase of talents from newbies and veterans alike, the Wings took a win on Wednesday, 2-1, over the Canucks in Vancouver.

Tomas Tatar had a late second period snipe from the top of the circles, through the legs of Roberto Luongo, to seal the deal.“Obviously I didn’t see it,” Luongo said. “I think our defenseman was trying to cut across to get the guy on the other side and I didn’t see it until the last second, but I have to find a way to find those. It’s a pretty (lousy) way to lose a game on a goal like that.”

The victory on Wednesday was not exactly Roberto Luongo’s fault though. The Canucks were not prepared to handle the speed and precise play of the Wings.

“We just looked lethargic,” Tortorella said. “For some reason we lacked some energy tonight. I thought throughout the game both teams, it was just kind of one of those games. I just don’t think we generated enough without our energy.”

The energy was not generated whatsoever throughout the entirety of the game. In fact, the Canucks have not been able to generate much of anything this season. Coming into Wednesday’s game, Vancouver ranked 28th overall on the power play with only four goals on the season. And going 0-3 on the power play against the Red Wings, John Tortorella has the right to be frustrated.

“It could have helped us tonight,” Tortorella said of the struggling power play. “It wasn’t good tonight. The other nights it’s been good. Tonight it wasn’t good.”

As for the Wings, they themselves needed this victory a bit more than the Canucks, dropping their last three games.

“When we’re careless with the puck and careless with our structure we don’t look very good,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “We’re a team that needs to play a certain way to be successful.”

With Babcock’s statement in mind, the Wings were quick out of the defensive zone and had good puck movement. Lines one through three have been coming together very nicely, but as the coach himself has said, the Wings need to stay consistent.

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Information from the Detroit Red Wings was used in this report.

For more information on the Detroit Red Wings and NHL hockey from analysts and journalists at Michigan State University – tune into Octopi Hockeytown podcasts and embrace the Spartan debate at www.impact89fm.org/sports

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Austin Goodman is the host of Octopi Hockeytown for Impact Sports.

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Scoring Summary:

1st Period:

VAN – 14:12 D. Sedin (Wrist) (H. Sedin and R. Stanton)

2nd Period:

DET – 11:37 – D. Alfredsson (Wrist) (B. Smith, K. Quincey)

DET – 18:58 – T. Tatar (Snap) (N. Kronwall, D. DeKeyser)

3rd period:

No goals recorded.

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Three Stars:

1st: P. Datsyuk (+1, 3 shots, 23:21 TOI)

2nd: R. Luongo (27 SA, 2 GA, .926%, EV(21-23), PP(3-3), SH(1-1)

3rd: T. Tatar (1 G, +1, 2 shots, 12:54 TOI)

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