Canucks' Salo nets in overtime to beat Red Wings

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Sami Salo scored on a power play in overtime to give the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday.

Curtis Sanford made 32 saves in place of injured netminder Robert Luongo, who is expected to miss at least four to five weeks after suffering a groin injury at the weekend.

Salo missed the previous two games with flu but realized he and his team mates needed to step up in the absence of Luongo, one of the highest-rated goalies in the league.

"It was a nice feeling to get the win, because it was a long couple of days with me battling this," Salo told reporters. "I knew it was important to play though."

The Red Wings controlled play in regulation, out-shooting the Canucks 34-16.

Vancouver, however, had all eight shots in overtime and hit the goalpost in one of several scoring chances before Salo's one-timer beat Chris Osgood for the winning goal.

Sanford was sharp in goal during regulation, keeping the Canucks in the game with several big saves.

"We're rallying around each other," he said. "There's adversity right now and we're finding a way to deal with it.

"We have each others' backs out there and we're going to find a way to get through all this."

Daniel Sedin and Taylor Pyatt also scored for the Canucks, who won for a season-high fourth successive time.

The Canucks have not lost in regulation since a 3-2 defeat by Detroit on November 2, and are 8-0-2 in their past 10 games.

Mikael Samuelsson had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings and Pavel Datsyuk had the other goal.

"We let one slip away," said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. "We took a penalty in overtime and they made a good play."

(Reporting by Roger Lajoie in Toronto; Editing by Martin Petty)