Canucks Take 2-0 Lead Over Red Wings

The Vancouver Canucks were not giddy, they weren’t even smiling after defeating what’s been regarded as the greatest show on ice.

Five players scored for the Canucks in Friday’s 5-2 victory that gave them a sweep of the two games in Detroit over the team that had the NHL’s best record in the regular season.

After winning their first playoff game since 1996 in Wednesday’s Game 1, the Canucks have now won two in a row for the first time in seven years.

The start to the best-of-seven first-round series has mirrored the end of the regular season: Detroit won only one of its last 10 games, while the Canucks were 8-0-1 in their last nine.

“We played the last 10 games of the year like we were in the playoffs because we couldn’t afford to lose one game,” said Vancouver goaltender Dan Cloutier, who made 34 saves.

Todd Bertuzzi, Andrew Cassels, Scott Lachance, Markus Naslund and Matt Cook scored for the Canucks.

Vancouver, which never trailed, put the game away on Naslund’s goal with 1:52 left in the game to make it 4-2. Cook had an empty-net goal moments later as the disgruntled crowd of 20,058 was already filing out of Joe Louis Arena.

Carolina 2, New Jersey 1--Bates Battaglia scored the game-winner 15:26 into overtime at Raleigh, N.C., and rookie Erik Cole had his second goal in as many games as the Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series.

Battaglia’s first career playoff goal came off a backhanded tip after defenseman Marek Malik held in an attempted clearing play by the Devils.