Wednesday, 22 January 2003

Red Wings Lose to Canucks 4-1

by AmericaJR

Lately, the Detroit Red Wings have been suffering. They are not playing like the defending Stanley Cup champs that they are. On Sunday night, they lost to the Vancouver Canucks 4-1.

The star of the game was Vancouver goalie Dan Cloutier. He saved 30 shots from the Red Wings and five others that were close to being goals. He said, "It was one of those nights where the puck found the post for me." Cloutier adds, "It's a good feeling."

The only Red Wings goal came in the beginning of the game in the first period. Tomas Holmstrom scored at 3:20. He was assisted by Nicklas Lidstrom and Dmitiri Bykov.

Detroit came close several times. Sergei Federov hit the post twice on two different shots. Holmstrom hit it on a penalty shot. Darren McCarty and Luc Robitaille also hit it.

Shanahan didn't blame the lost on those shots. He said, "We didn't play a smart hockey game." Brendan Shanahan comments, "They scored on what we gave, then we spent the last half of the game killing penalties."

The Canucks scored twice later on the first period. First, at 13:22 by Trent Klatt and later at 17:29 by Bryan Allen. Then, they scored once in the second period. At 14:01, Sami Slo scored a power play goal. Their last goal came in the third period at 7:20 when Matt Cooke scored.

In other news, Nicklas Lidstrom was playing in his 900th career NHL hockey game. Also, former Red Wing Gordie Howe was in attendance to watch the game. Robitaille returned to the game on Sunday after his injury on Thursday.

The Red Wings are now 26-13-7 and are second in the NHL Central Division behind St. Louis. Their next game is tonight at the Edmonton Oilers at 9pm EST. They will be looking to win or it will be their second consecutive loss in a row.