RECAP: Red Wings fall to NHL-leading Canucks, 4-1

VANCOUVER -- J.T. Compher was the Detroit Red Wings’ lone goal scorer, recording his 100th career goal, in a 4-1 loss to the NHL-leading Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Thursday night.

The Red Wings (27-20-6; 60 points) outshot the Canucks (37-12-6; 80 points), 28-21, but finished 0-for-5 on the power play. Detroit goalie Alex Lyon made 17 saves, while Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko turned aside 27 shots.

“We just didn’t generate enough offense,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “Obviously going 0-for on the power play stung, but I don’t know if it was so much execution or we just didn’t finish. Probably, when you look back at a lot of this game, our inability to score on the power play and inability to generate 5-on-5 had a lot to do with Demko."

The Canucks took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission on a pair of goals scored less than two minutes apart before the halfway mark of the opening frame. The first goal went to J.T. Miller, who capitalized on a turnover in the offensive zone and scored his 24th tally of the season at 7:37. Elias Lindholm got his first goal of the game just 1:54 later, firing a shot from just below the blue line that went in off the post.

"Not an ideal start," Lalonde said. "You get out of that first period, it's tough to evaluate. You don't think you played that poorly and didn't give up a lot, but find yourself down, 2-0, to a really good team." 

At 12:51 of the second period, the Canucks’ Nikita Zadorov picked up the puck near the boards and sniped it through traffic from above the left faceoff circle to push it to 3-0.

Getting the Red Wings on the scoreboard 1:33 later, Compher netted a wrister that made it 3-1. The assists on Compher's 12th goal of the season went to Patrick Kane and Christian Fischer, extending their respective point streaks to three consecutive games.

With the tally, Compher became the sixth Illinois-born player in NHL history to reach the 100-goal milestone, joining Ed Olczyk (342), Tony Granato (248), Tom Fergus (235) Chris Chelios (185) and Mike O'Connell (105).

Lindholm scored Vancouver’s final goal, and his second of the night, when he buried a feed from Elias Pettersson off the rush on a delayed penalty at 12:59 of the third period (4-1). Detroit finished with a 15-5 shot advantage in the final frame.

"Our offense was just buzzing the other night against Edmonton, but we gave up too much," Lalonde said. "Tonight we defended pretty well, but we just didn't generate enough. We'll see how the guys respond. We'll get a good practice in tomorrow and then an opportunity in Calgary on Saturday."

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will conclude the Western Canada stretch of their four-game road trip on Saturday afternoon, taking on the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.

QUOTABLE

Lalonde on Detroit going 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period

"We did generate some looks, but that's a frustrating stretch in that J.T. beats the goalie to the inside post, obviously it rings out and the next two shots go in and we find ourselves down 2-0."

Kane on the first two games of the Red Wings' Western Canada road trip

"We're in the game against Edmonton, 3-3. Things kind of snowballed in the third. And then tonight, 3-0, you get it to 3-1 and you're trying to generate something to make it a one-goal hockey game. We had some looks. Spronger (Daniel Sprong) made a great play to me on the power play, have to bury that one. It was a good save by the goalie, but I kind of shot it back into him. It would have been nice to bury that one, but I still think we can maybe generate a little bit more offensively and just with our zone time too."

Lyon on Thursday's loss to the Canucks

"I actually thought we played pretty well tonight. Visiting building, I thought Thatcher was awesome. It's a difficult team to play against and a very good team. I think, obviously, every point is critical but as I've said a million times, there's going to be bumps in the road. It's not going to be easy. Edmonton was a bit of a slap in the face, but I think that we were on the right track tonight."