Red Wings, Lyon lose 4-1 to league-leading Canucks: 'I didn't love my game'

Vancouver, B.C. — The Vancouver Canucks have the best record in the NHL and Thursday the Red Wings got to see why.

Vancouver scored twice midway in the first period and never lost the lead, while defeating the Wings, 4-1.

It was a disappointing night in ways for the Wings, who failed to score on five-play attempts, couldn't solve red-hot goaltender Thatcher Demko (27 saves) and were relatively quiet at even-strength.

Defensively, the Wings limited Vancouver to only 21 shots and didn't allow the Canucks many quality chances.

But as the Wings have seen in these first two games of the road trip, against two quality teams (Edmonton, Vancouver), you need a complete game to win.

"You're playing two teams that could easily win the Stanley Cup on the road, you have to be really exact with your game," coach Derek Lalonde said. "It's just some of these sporadic holes in our games against teams like these games, it'll get you and that's what happened."

The Wings simply didn't have the offense Thursday to defeat the NHL-leading Canucks.

"You come in here and you limit a team like that to 21 shots and maybe six chances we gave up, we didn't just generate offense," Lalonde said. "Going 0-fer on the power play stung. I don't know if it was so much execution, but we didn't finish. And our inability to score on the power play and inability to generate five-on-five probably had a lot to do with Demko, and when a guy is on like that you can feel it.

"We did some pretty good things but as we're finding out as you play these upper-echelon teams, there's a fine line between winning and losing and we have to start flipping it."

J.T. Compher scored the Wings' only goal, his 12th this season and 100th of his career. But other than that, the Wings were quiet after scoring four (including two power play goals) the game before in Edmonton.

The Wings trailed 2-0 in the first period but failed on three power-play attempts to draw closer.

BOX SCORE: Canucks 4, Red Wings 1

"Power play has to be better," forward Patrick Kane said. "A lot of chances tonight, I wasn't very good on the power play, so I take responsibility for that. You get those chances you want to create momentum. We only gave up 21 shots, so we didn't really give them much. It would have been nice to capitalize on something in the third down 3-1, any power play throughout the game."

Elias Lindholm's second goal of the game, off a Canucks rush at 12:59 of the third period, gave Vancouver another three-goal lead (4-1) they wouldn't relinquish.

Goaltender Alex Lyon stopped 17-of-21 shots, while making his 17th appearance in the last 18 games. With news Tuesday morning that goaltender Ville Husso (lower-body) is week-to-week, Lyon and James Reimer will need to carry the load for the immediate future. Lalonde hinted after the game it might be time to give Lyon a break Saturday when the Wings visit Calgary (4 p.m./BSD/97.1).

More:Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso out 'week-to-week;' James Reimer to back up Alex Lyon

"I think so," said Lalonde of whether the toll of playing so many games might be getting to Lyon. "Unfortunately, he got put in a pretty bad situation in Edmonton (Husso was hurt Tuesday) and it's something we'll evaluate. It's probably time to look at maybe giving him a rest and looking at the big picture a little bit. That's something we'll evaluate as a staff in the morning."

Lyon felt he "found a groove later in the game" and is hopeful that will snap him out of a two-game slump on this trip.

"I didn't love my game tonight, I'll say flat out," Lyon said. "That being said, I gave up seven (goals) last game so for me, it's just re-engaging and you give up the two (goals) in the first period real quick and it turns into a mental grind.

"I want to help the team put a W (victory) on the board, put up zero goals, but it's just the reality of the situation. You have to grind through that and make sure it doesn't snowball down the hill."

The Wings (27-20-6, 60 points) have lost the first two games of this four-game road trip, with the next stop Saturday in Calgary (4 p.m./BSD/97.1). Vancouver moved to 37-12-6 (80 points).

The complexion of the game turned on Vancouver's two first-period goals.

On the first, Jeff Petry's clearing pass of the boards landed directly on J.T. Miller's stick just outside the circle. Miller skated to near the hashmarks and blasted a shot past Lyon, Miller's 24th goal, at 7:37.

It didn't take long for Vancouver to push the lead to two goals. Lindholm carried the puck into the zone and fired a shot from the high slot that handcuffed Lyon, Lindholm's 12th goal, at 9:31.

More:Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso out 'week-to-week;' James Reimer to back up Alex Lyon

Demko made a big save on Joe Veleno on a third-period power play and robbed Daniel Sprong with a sprawling second-period stop, Demko's best saves of the evening.

Compher finally solved Demko with the Wings down 3-0 at 14:25 of the second period. Nikita Zadorov gave Vancouver a 3-0 lead at 12:51 as he lofted a shot from the point that eluded Lyon, who looked screened on the play, Zadorov's second goal.

Lalonde wants to see a more complete game out of the Wings in Calgary.

"We haven't had a five-on-five game offensively as good as we were in Edmonton in a long time," Lalonde said. "We put together a pretty good defensive game (Thursday). It's just back to putting it back together. We started chasing a little bit (Thursday) which hasn't been us.

"It's a little frustrating and it's a very tough part of the schedule and we knew not many teams have gotten points in this Edmonton-Vancouver back-to-back. But just the difference in the two (games), our offense was buzzing the other night and we gave up too much and (Thursday) we defended pretty well and we didn't generate enough (offensively).

"We'll see how the guys respond."

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

@tkulfan