Canucks Finally Post a Victory in Detroit

The Vancouver Canucks used good goaltending and a little luck to get their first regular-season win in Detroit in nearly six years.

Dan Cloutier stopped 30 shots and five more Detroit shots hit either a post or the crossbar as the Canucks defeated the Red Wings, 4-1, Sunday night.

“It was one of those nights where the puck found the post for me,” Cloutier said. “It’s a good feeling.”

Bryan Allen scored the go-ahead goal for Vancouver, which won its first regular-season game in Detroit since Feb. 6, 1997.

The Canucks beat the defending Stanley Cup champions twice at Joe Louis Arena during the first round of last season’s Stanley Cup playoffs and won at Vancouver earlier this season.

“Last year, we think we should have had a [series] win in the playoffs,” Matt Cooke said. “So we came in here with something to prove.”

Trent Klatt, Sami Salo and Cooke also scored for the Canucks. Tomas Holmstrom scored for the Red Wings.

Sergei Fedorov hit a post on two shots, Holmstrom hit one on a penalty shot with 3:38 left and Darren McCarty and Luc Robitaille also hit a post each.

Brendan Shanahan didn’t think the errant shots were the reason Detroit lost.

“We didn’t play a smart hockey game,” he said. “They scored on what we gave, then we spent the last half of the game killing penalties.”

Holmstrom opened the scoring 3:20 into the game when he beat Cloutier on the short side with a low slap shot from the top of the left circle.

New York Islanders 4, Atlanta 1 -- Alexei Yashin scored in consecutive games for the first time since mid-October and added a third-period assist at Atlanta to help end the Thrashers’ three-game winning streak.

Thrasher Coach Bob Hartley lost for the first time since he was hired Tuesday. Atlanta has never won four straight games in its four-year history.

Yashin backed the play of goaltender Chris Osgood, who stopped 24 shots and improved to 7-0-0 against Atlanta.

Philadelphia 4, New York Rangers 2 -- Michal Handzus broke a tie with 5:04 left and the Flyers rallied to win at Madison Square Garden.

Handzus, who beat the Rangers with a penalty shot in overtime in the teams’ last meeting, ended it earlier this time by capitalizing on a turnover by Mark Messier.

Messier had the puck to the right of the New York goal, but lost control of it to Handzus, who came around and tucked it into the net.