Vancouver Canucks 1, Detroit Red Wings 3 FINAL

DETROIT (AP) _ Nicklas Lidstrom gave Manny Legace all the help he needed.

Lidstrom had a goal and two assists and Legace made 23 saves to lift the Detroit Red Wings over the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 Friday night.

Brendan Shanahan and Brett Hull scored the other goals for Detroit, which was without centers Pavel Datsyuk (sprained ankle) and Kris Draper (partially separated rotator cuff) and defenseman Mathieu Dandenault (broken foot).

``Just trying to win hockey games and we've got a lot of guys out,'' said Legace, who has an 8-2 record and 1.80 goals-against average since Curtis Joseph went down with a sprained ankle on Feb. 11.

The Red Wings are 11-2-2 in their last 15 games and have a league-best 89 points.

``It was a good effort by everybody,'' Detroit coach Dave Lewis said.

Legace's best save was a sprawling glove stop on Sean Pronger's shot from just outside the crease with 2:47 left in the second period.

``It looked like he had pretty much an open net,'' Lidstrom said. ``From the bench, it looked like he would score into the open net. But Manny got over and made the save. I don't know how he made it.''

Legace described the effort.

``I reached for it with my glove, but it hit my pad,'' he said. ``I thought it was going in.''

Mike Keane scored for Vancouver.

Detroit scored twice in the second period to break a scoreless tie.

Shanahan got the game's first goal at 3:15, on a one-timer from just inside the blue line. Hull made it 2-0 at 6:19 of the second while Detroit was on a five-on-three advantage.

``We did a good job of killing (the penalty) until the end of the shift,'' Vancouver coach Marc Crawford said. ``And then the goal sucked the life out of us.''

Lidstrom converted a pass from Ray Whitney on a two-on-one 6:07 into the third period. Keane thwarted Legace's shutout attempt with 4:59 remaining.

``We didn't play good enough for this kind of game,'' the Canucks' Todd Bertuzzi said.''