Sedin seals shocker

Vancouver stuns Detroit 4-3 in OT to take Game 1

Veteran Trevor Linden provides some perspective for 21-year-old Henrik Sedin after Sedin's game-winning overtime goal. AP

DETROIT (AP) -- A hush fell over Hockeytown.

Henrik Sedin scored an unassisted goal, off the shoulder of Detroit's Igor Larionov, at 13:59 of overtime to give the Vancouver Canucks a 4-3 win over the Red Wings on Wednesday night in Game 1 of their first-round series.

A sold-out crowd left Joe Louis Arena virtually silent as the Red Wings' collection of future Hall of Famers stumbled on the first step toward its quest for the Stanley Cup.

"We're not going to panic, everybody else can panic," Detroit's Darren McCarty said. "It's what we expect with the team we have, with what we expect of ourselves and what people expect from us. We know what it is."

The "it," is a Stanley Cup, the one and only result that will be acceptable for the Red Wings and their rabid fans.

Detroit, which had the NHL's best record, will play host to the Western Conference's eighth-seeded Canucks again Friday, in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.

"It makes Friday even bigger," McCarty said.

Sedin said he didn't have a clear path toward Dominik Hasek, who made just 22 saves, so he just lifted his shot into traffic from above the right circle.

"I just tried to get it on net," Sedin said. "I saw it on TV, it hit [Larionov] on his shoulder."

It led to Vancouver's first playoff win since 1996.

Detroit coach Scotty Bowman defended the play of Hasek, the six-time Vezina Trophy winner and two-time league MVP.

"One was deflected and one was in traffic," Bowman said. "There's not much you can do on those."

Luc Robitaille, Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov scored for the Red Wings in regulation to give them 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads.

Todd Warriner, Andrew Cassels and Trevor Linden scored for Vancouver. Linden's goal tied it at 3 at 10:47 of the third period.

Dan Cloutier stopped 32 shots for the Canucks.

"It's always great to beat the best goalie in the league," Cloutier said. "But once the puck drops, I can't worry about who is in the other net."

A Red Wings miscue allowed the Canucks to tie the game for a third time.

Linden kept the puck in Detroit's end after Pavel Datsyuk was unable to clear it. Linden knocked the puck ahead to Artem Chubarov, who got it back to Linden, who flipped it past Hasek as the red-and-white clad crowd sighed with disappointment.

The 41-year-old Larionov, the oldest player in the NHL, scored early in the third to put the Red Wings ahead 3-2.

Robitaille scored the game's first goal at 17:51 of the first. Steve Yzerman flipped a pass off the boards near the red line, but defenseman Bryan Helmer mishandled it, allowing Robitaille to corral the puck above the circles and beat Cloutier with a wrist shot after faking a backhander.

"You can't teach that kind of pass," Robitaille said. "He saw me in the middle and it was a smart play. He kind of just let it bounce. It was lucky for me, it bounced over the defense's stick. I got on the breakaway and just didn't want to miss."

Vancouver tied it at 1 before most fans made it back to their seats after the first intermission.

Warriner slipped a shot between Hasek's hip and the post after Matt Cooke fed him with a pass from behind the net, on the opposite end, just 21 seconds into the second period.

Detroit went ahead 2-1 midway through the second period on Fedorov's one-timer above the circles on a power play.

The Canucks capitalized on a two-man advantage to tie the game at 2 at 13:11 of the second. Andrew Cassels beat Hasek on his near side with a shot just below the right circle.

Late in the second period, the Red Wings also had a two-man advantage, but couldn't score.

"We got our chance on the 5-on-3 and we buried it," said Vancouver's Ed Jovanovski, who assisted on Cassels' goal. "On the flip side of that, we killed off a big one."

Notes: Yzerman played in his 155th playoff game, breaking a team record set by Gordie Howe. ... The 28 players on Detroit's roster entered with a combined 1,852 playoff games and 23 Stanley Cup rings. ... The game marked the first playoff game between the two teams. ... Linesman Greg Devorski injured his left knee midway through the first period, skated off the ice, but was unable to return.

 

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