Patrick Kane makes history with No. 500, Wings keep churning with win

Patrick Kane settled the puck on his stick, crossed the blue line, fired the puck into an empty net and made history,

Kane's goal 16:07 into the third period made him the 50th player in NHL history to record 500 career goals and the fifth U.S.-born player. Earlier in the game, he notched No. 499 when he skated to the left faceoff dot and snapped the puck into the net.

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Kane's historic night propelled the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday, Jan. 8.

NO. 500: Patrick Kane nets 500th career goal in Red Wings game vs Canucks

Red Wings playoff picture

The victory gave the Wings nine points their last six games and improved their record to 26-15-4. They have a huge test coming up next, hitting the road to take on Atlantic Division rival Montreal on Saturday (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Detroit) – the Canadiens also played on Thursday, needing a win to stay tied with the Wings atop the division.

Sluggish early vs. Vancouver

Passing the Habs likely will require a better start than what the Wings put forth against the Canucks. A two-goal second period helped the Wings go into the third up, 3-1, and the Canucks, with little to lose, pulled their goalie. Kane scored shortly afterwards, and Lucas Raymond also added an empty-net goal.

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The Wings had a slow start to the night, even as they faced a team hovering near the bottom of the standings. When they went on a power play 13 minutes after the first face-off, John Gibson had made seven saves to two by Vancouver's Kevin Lankinen. Not much happened during that man advantage, but the Wings got another one at 17:47, and a third at 17:56, leaving them with 1:52 of a two-man advantage.

A quintet of Kane, Raymond, Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat and James van Riemsdyk needed almost all of it before Raymond dropped a pass for Kane near the blue line and Kane took the puck to the left circle and snapped it into Vancouver's net, with 29 seconds to play in the first period.

Axel Sandin-Pellikka made it 2-0 five minutes into the second period when he pinched, with van Riemsdyk centering a pass that Sandin-Pellikka fired into the net from the slot. That was countered by Jake DeBrusk's power play marker two minutes later, but the Wings answered back three minutes later. Sandin-Pellikka fired the puck in from the blue line and van Riemsdyk caught the bounce off the boards and fed J.T. Compher, who was all alone in front of the crease.

The momentum carried the Wings the rest of the period, and they had an 18-14 edge in shots after two periods.

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Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings vanquish Vancouver with history for Patrick Kane