Last night the Detroit Red Wings came into Vancouver with a highly ranked power play and penalty-killing record.

But last night, the Canucks' special teams made the difference in a 4-1 victory at Rogers Arena.

Vancouver scored two power-play goals, the first on a booming slapshot from the point by Alex Edler at 1:48 of the second period.

The second came at 10:49 of the third period when Radim Vrbata drove home his own rebound for his 16th goal of the season.

Importantly for the Canucks, they killed off two penalties in succession early in the third period. Ryan Stanton and Daniel Sedin were each sent off for hooking Gustav Nyquist, who was one of Detroit's more effective players.

The Red Wings made it close when Tomas Tatar fired a shot past Canuck goalie Ryan Miller at 16:30 of the third period.

On the only Detroit goal, there was a lot of traffic in front of Miller, who was oustanding in the net, blocking 22 shots.

The Canucks put the game away in the final two minutes when Henrik Sedin scored two empty-net goals. His first marked the 200th of his career, prompting a long standing ovation from the crowd.

Henrik Sedin added an assist and his brother Daniel posted three assists.

Forward Zack Kassian returned to the lineup after a long absence, getting more than 11 minutes of ice time and delivering a team-leading three hits.

His biggest disappointment of the night came when he was sent off for a two-minute penalty for embellishment after he was tripped by Johan Franzen.

Had the penalty not been called on Kassian, Vancouver could have had a chance to score a second power-play goal of the period and take control of the game much earlier.