Red Wings-Canucks Tweetcap: Gibson’s shutout powers Wings to 4-0 win over Vancouver

The Detroit Red Wings emerged from an 0-3-and-1 slide via Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken, and Detroit headed into Western Canada to begin a stretch of 3 games in 4 nights against Vancouver (Monday), Calgary (Wednesday) and Edmonton (Thursday).

On Monday night, the Red Wings won what I can only describe as a weird one. Vancouver out-shot Detroit 36-20, and had a fair amount of Grade-A scoring chances, but John Gibson’s sight lines were clear, so he pitched his first shutout as a Red Wing…

And James van Riemsdyk (at 14:14 of the 1st) and Andrew Copp (at 15:15 of the 1st) pushed the Wings out to a 2-0 lead, which is pretty much all they needed en route to a 4-0 victory over Vancouver.

Nate Danielson would score his second goal on a gorgeous little give and go between Kasper and Sandin Pellikka (who also set up Copp’s goal), and Dylan Larkin would get his 16th via an empty-netter…

But the Wings really owed Gibson, because as great as the Wings played above the red line, they were shaky at times in front of their own goaltender against a struggling Canucks team, and thankfully, Gibson has begun to deliver.

All in all, the Red Wings are now 2-0-and-1 going into games 4, 5 and 6 of their 6-game road trip, about to embark on a set of 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights, so they needed these points, and the “how” is a little less important than the “how many.”

2. Necessary. Thank you, John.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Kevin Lankinen led their respective teams out onto the ice at Rogers Place (and Cam Talbot was last in the warmup line)…

The Canucks posted their lineup just prior to game time…

And the Wings posted their lineup prior to puck drop as well:

1ST PERIOD:

The teams dressed the following starters and lineups:

GOAL: With Vancouver leading in shots 9-2, Michael Rasmussen charged up the Canucks’ left wing boards, he was stood up by and smeared by one Tyler Myers, but the puck continued forward to J.T. Compher below the goal line, he reversed the flow to the top of the crease, and James van Riemsdyk went skate-to-stick on Lankinen and scored at 14:14 of the 1st.

Detroit 1, Vancouver 0: van Riemsdyk (7) from Compher (7) and Rasmussen (5) at 14:14 1st period.

PENALTY: At 15:17, Andrew Copp was called for cross-checking a Canuck into the end boards in Detroit’s zone, with a little too much enthusiasm for the refs’ takes.

2ND PERIOD:

PENALTY: Kiefer Sherwood took a bit of a dive, and Simon Edvinsson was called for tripping at 2:27.

GOAL: Alex DeBrincat kicked a puck toward the Canucks’ blueline, and Vancouver gave the puck up to Patrick Kane at the left wing half boards. Kane dropped to DeBrincat center point, he found Axel Sandin Pellikka on the right wing half boards, and he fed Andrew Copp at the tip top of the crease, giving Detroit a 2-0 lead at 15:15 of the 3rd.

Detroit 2, Vancouver 0: Copp (3) from Sandin Pellikka (7) and DeBrincat (17) at 15:15 of the 2nd period.

GOAL: Off a lovely cycle by Elmer Soderblom, Marco Kasper fed Sandin Pellikka at the point, he blasted a shot through traffic and that traffic was Nate Danielson, who tipped the puck through Kevin Lankinen at 15:51 of the 2nd.

Detroit 3, Vancouver 0: Danielson (2) from Sandin Pellikka (8) and Kasper (1) at 15:51 of the 2nd period.

3RD PERIOD:

GOALIE CHANGE: Vancouver placed Nikita Tolopilo in goal after Kevin Lankinen gave up 3 goals on 13 shots against.

GOALIE PULL: Vancouver pulled Tolopilo with 5:00 remaining, after a fine set of saves by John Gibson throughout a third period in which Detroit was out-shot and out-chanced…

GOAL: Dylan Larkin then stripped a Canuck of the puck at 15:22 of the 3rd period, and he ripped the puck into the empty net.

Detroit 4, Vancouver 0: Larkin (16) from Raymond (22) at 15:29, empty net.

PENALTY: Max Sasson went for holding at 17:50…

PENALTY: And Marco Kasper went off at 18:26, for tripping, affording the teams 1:24 of a 4-on-4.

Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!