VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pavel Datsyuk and Jiri Hudler scored in the shootout, and the Detroit Red Wings padded their lead over Vancouver in the Western Conference standings with a 4-3 victory against the Canucks on Thursday night.
Both shooters beat goalie Roberto Luongo on the stick side to give the Red Wings a 6-0 record this season in shootouts. Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard smothered Alex Edler's close-in shot, and Mason Raymond lost control of the puck in the tiebreaker.
Drew Miller, Hudler and Dan Cleary gave the Red Wings one-goal leads. Detroit (35-16-1) won for the ninth time in 10 games to move four points ahead of Vancouver (31-15-5), which has a game in hand. It was also the fourth win in four road games for Detroit, which is 15-14 away from home.
Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows and Raymond forced overtime for the Canucks, who were outshot 43-25 before the shootout. Vancouver went 3-3 on a homestand that spanned the NHL All-Star break.
Raymond tied the game with 4:24 remaining in regulation when his shot deflected behind Howard after hitting defenseman Brad Stuart.
Burrows got the Canucks into a 2-2 tie midway through the third period, but Miller scored less than two minutes later.
Miller was in the right place during a goal-mouth scramble in front of Luongo and knocked in the rebound of Cleary's shot. Luongo made a solid toe save on Cleary but couldn't corral the rebound, and Miller capitalized.
Miller ended a 17-game goal drought in a victory over Calgary on Tuesday.
Burrows' goal came when he took a pass from Maxim Lapierre and fired a shot over Howard's glove.
Detroit jumped on the Canucks from the start, and Cleary, who had a cyst removed from behind his knee on Wednesday, provided an early lead.
He stickhandled from the circle, past defenseman Dan Hamhuis to the crease and snapped a shot through traffic.
The work of two Detroit-area natives gave Vancouver a 1-1 tie before the period ended.
David Booth dug the puck off the end boards and took it hard to the net. Kesler swooped in and knocked the rebound behind Howard.
The Red Wings almost regained the lead late in the first period, when they outshot Vancouver 15-8, but Luongo got an arm on a rising drive by Johan Franzen.
He foiled Franzen again on the doorstep during an early second-period power play and got his blocker on Nicklas Lidstrom's hard drive.
Luongo was under siege again as Detroit had an 11-0 advantage in shots until Vancouver tested Howard at 12:08 of the second period.
The 12th Detroit shot beat Luongo's glove when Hudler ripped Valtteri Filppula's pass behind the Canucks goalie for his fourth goal in three games.
Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault tried to ignite his team's offense by splitting up twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin to start the third period.
NOTES: Gordie Howe received a standing ovation when he was introduced during the second period. ... The teams will conclude their season series on Feb. 23 in Detroit. ... Winger Chris Higgins was out of the Canucks lineup because of an illness. ... Tomas Holmstrom was back in the Detroit lineup after sitting out Tuesday's 3-1 win in Calgary because of soreness in both knees following injections last week.
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