The Red Wings entered Vancouver for Game 2 of their Western Canada tour after a 36 save shutout by Petr Mrazek on the Edmonton Oilers the night before but elected to start Jimmy Howard. Gustav Nyquist had a scary knee-on-knee collision against Edmonton and is considered Day-to-Day but is in the lineup against Vancouver.

Darren Helm got the Wings on the board from a huge rebound from Thatcher Demko with assists by Frans Nielsen and Justin Abdelkader.

Justin Abdelkader sat 2 minutes on an interference call. Mike Green shot the puck over the glass with spending the beginning of the 2nd in the box.

Marty Frk is awarded Detroit’s second goal and 1st powerplay goal of the night after Anthony Mantha forces Chris Tanev’s stick and puck into the net. Since Mantha never touched the puck, Martin Frk was the last Red Wing to touch the puck prior to Tanev and is awarded a powerplay goal.

The 4th line of Wilson-Glendening-Frk had a spectacular shift this period, grinding down Vancouver with over a minute in their own zone.
Athanasiou seemed to always be chasing down the puck with solid forechecking and keep the puck away once he’s got it.

Mike Green has also been good defensively .

Vancouver’s Brock Boeser had the only penalty of the period, a tripping call.

Period 3 saw Vancouver come out with a chip on their shoulder with many scrums popping up after the whistle.
Daniel Sedin opened the scoring for the Canucks with helpers by Thomas Vanek and Henrik Sedin.

Luke Glendening and Derek Dorsett pick up offsetting roughing minors after a whistle. Leaving the score 2-1 with lots of ice available now, Vancouver’s Michael Del Zotto picks up his first of the season after a feed from Bo Horvat to tie the game and send it into overtime.

While it looked like we were destined for overtime, Dylan Larkin won a crucial faceoff in the final two minutes of the game, creating a sequence of events that led to Tomas Tatar sniping the puck high and over Demko’s right shoulder for his 4th goal of the season and his 200th career point.

That would be the game winner as Detroit extended their win streak to two.

Tonight’s Motor City MVP is Tomas Tatar for sniping the game winner late in the game and saving us the torture of having to stay up past 1:00 AM EST. Thank you, Tomas. You have ensured we’ll be a little more rested on Tuesday morning.

Detroit has 2 days before they finish off this year’s Western Canada tour against the Calgary Flames and has already acquired 4 of the 6 possible points. Expect everyone to be well rested and ready. The Flames are currently on a 4 game win streak but face the Vancouver Canucks at home before the Wings fly into the Saddledome on Thursday.