In Detroit, Dylan Larkin hit for a double on Saturday afternoon to help the Red Wings to a 5-2 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks. 
“We’re going on the road, and we have to keep this going,” Larkin said. “We’ve been decent on the road, but we need to get to the trade deadline (March 3) and still be in the [Stanley Cup Playoff] race.”
Ville Husso made 33 saves in the Detroit win.
The Red Wings improved to 23-20-8.
Jonatan Berggren also hit for a p[air of goals for the Red Wings.
Larkin and Berggren scored in the first period to stake the Wings to a 2-0 lead.
Elias Pettersson and Anthony Beauvillier were the Canucks’ strikers, who only got as close as 2-1 on the Beauvillier goal in the second period.
“Getting those two goals was huge, because there were some points in the rest of the game where we didn’t look quite as sharp,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “We’ve been starting well of late, even going back before the [All-Star] break. The two months before that, we weren’t getting started.”
Larkin hit for his second in the middle frame to push the lead back to two goals at 3-1.
Detroit had six power play chances in the game.
“You give a team [six] power plays. We’re on four-in-six-nights and a couple of guys were a little sluggish, and that’s what happens,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “There was some good things I liked in the game where [we] battled back but you can’t give a team [12] minutes of power plays.”
The Canucks dropped to 21-28-4.
“Yeah, once again, just a lot of shooting ourselves in the foot tonight,” Vancouver forward Dakota Joshua said. “Not the winning recipe that we came into the game with and then you catch yourself trying to battle back for pretty much 55 minutes of the game. Not a good recipe.”
Filip Hronek extended the lead to 4-1 early in the third.
Berggren’s second pushed the lead to 5-1, before Pettersson trimmed the lead to 5-2.
“I’m trying to make sure I don’t have many downs in my game,” Berggren said. “Scoring gives you a lot more confidence, but I have to keep getting better.”
Spencer Martin made 20 saves in the Canucks loss.
“That’s what happens, right? It’s a lot of what-ifs,” Tocchet said. “But the bottom line, four-in-six and a lot of teams go through this stuff and you’ve got to be really mentally focused and we weren’t at the start with the penalties and then you just give teams free starts.”
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