VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ In sell mode, the Detroit Red Wings showed they have fight in them yet.
Two goals from Frans Nielsen, a fine night from Petr Mrazek and an overtime goal from Justin Abdelkader earned the Wings a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday at Rogers Arena.
Out of the playoff picture, the Wings are selling off assets, with Steve Ott, Brendan Smith and Tomas Jurco already moved for draft picks. There also has been interest in Thomas Vanek.
The Wings began a 10-day victory with a solid start. Nielsen scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season and Mrazek had made some highlight saves among 17 through two periods to give the Wings a 2-1 lead going into the third period. Mrazek used his glove to deny Alexander Edler during as the Wings continued a good penalty killing night. Riley Sheahan, still looking for his first goal of the season drove the net with the puck only to end up in the net himself.
Reid Boucher tied it with 2:46 left in regulation after Danny DeKeyser coughed up the puck. Mrazek (21 saves) and Ryan Miller (21) traded off big saves the rest of regulation to force overtime. Abdelkader scored at 2:31 on a power play.
Henrik Zetterberg's line threatened to score on the very first shift of the game. Soon after killing a penalty to Ryan Sproul, Nielsen's line made it 1-0 when Nielsen took a pass from Andreas Athanasiou and ripped a shot off the left goal post and in behind Miller, less than 5 minutes into the first period. Mrazek kept it that way with a kick save on Henrik Sedin when he rushed in from the right side.
Nielsen earned his second of the night on a power play, when he shot bar down after a nice pass from Zetterberg. Shots after the first period were 10-10.
Markus Granlund scored 2 minutes into the second period when he got a pass in the slot from Daniel Sedin and beat Mrazek with a clean shot.
Vanek set up a sweet cross-ice pass to Athanasiou but nothing came of it. Mrazek was able to reach behind him and cover them puck just before Jayson Megna slid into the paint to try for a rebound. Mrazek made a pad save on Troy Stecher during Vancouver's second power play, midway through the second period.
Nielsen tried for a hat trick late in the second period when he skated near the paint and got one shot off, followed by a backhand attempt on his rebound. Mrazek remained the more active of the two goalies, scrambling to contain the puck after Luca Sbisa hovered around the right post.
