Well it took them a few games into their road trip to get a W, but the Canucks finally did it Saturday as they beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 on Linden Vey’s shootout goal.
Vey, recalled from Utica of the American Hockey League earlier in the day, snapped a shot from between the hash marks past Jimmy Howard for the win.
Sven Baertschi had a goal and an assist and Jared McCann and Radim Vrbata scored for Vancouver (12-14-8), who won for the third time in 11 games (3-6-2). Ryan Miller made 25 saves through overtime and six more in the shootout.
It was Jared McCann who opened up the scoring at the 18:57 mark of the first period beating Howard for his seventh goal on the season.
The Canucks doubled up their lead after Sven Baertschi scored at the 17:08 of the second period, snapping a shot past Howard.
A little over a minute later Detroit finally got on the board courtesy of Joakim Andersson when he got in position in front of the net and tipped defenseman Danny DeKeyser’s pass from the left-wing corner past Miller for his first goal of the season.
In the third period Detroit came roaring back, and sent the game to overtime.
Pavel Datsyuk made it 2-2 at 3:29 of the third period with his third goal. He scored into the open side of the net from the bottom of the right circle after taking a pass from defenseman Brendan Smith.
The Canucks would retake the lead on Radim Vrbata’s tenth goal on the season at 5:33. Vrbata collected a rebound and slid a backhand shot past Howard.
With Howard pulled for an extra attacker with less than a minute remaining, Henrik Zetterberg tied it up at 3-3 at 18:53.
In the shootout, Vey scored in the seventh round to give the Canucks the 4-3 win on the road.
It was a gutsy performance for the group playing without star centre Henrik Sedin after leaving last game against Philadelphia with a lower body injury.
Up next: The Canucks square off against an old friend Roberto Luongo and his Florida Panthers Sunday at 1:00pm.
Image via: Youtube
