VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Detroit Red Wings refused to quit.

The Red Wings scored twice in the third period to erase a 2-0 deficit and right winger Gustav Nyquist scored at 3:50 of three-on-three overtime for a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

The win snapped a four-game Detroit losing streak.

"Losing four in a row shouldn't happen for this team. It's not acceptable,"

said Nyquist, who scored his fourth goal of the season. "This isn't how we play as a team.

"We skated hard. We out-battled them and won more pucks and wanted it more. I thought that showed in the third."

Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek set up the winning goal by sending a long pass up the ice to Nyguist. He skated in alone and beat Vancouver goaltender Ryan Miller low on the glove side.

"I saw Gus standing on their blue line and they were changing," said Mrazek, who made 32 saves. "I just wanted to get it to him.

"It's a huge victory for us."

Nyquist said he was at the end of a long shift.

"I was pretty tried," he said. "I saw I had some back checkers coming off the bench, so I just tried to find an open spot. It was nice to see it go in."

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill credited veteran Henrik Zetterberg for leading the team on the ice and in the dressing room.

"Zetterberg, from the drop of the puck, was the one guy that was competing and battling at that championship level and the rest of the team followed suit in the third," he said.

"Our compete level and battle level rose to the level it has to be to successful."

Left wingers Tomas Tatar and Teemu Pulkkinen scored 2:34 apart in the third period for the Red Wings (4-3-1).

Tatar, who also had an assist, said there was anger in the dressing room after 40 minutes.

"We knew we didn't play good enough and we didn't put in enough effort the last few games," he said. "It gets you mad for sure.

"We stepped up and showed we can play hockey."

The Canucks were forced to kill a penalty just 15 seconds into the overtime when left winger Daniel Sedin was called for tripping. That gave Detroit a four-one-three advantage for two minutes, but the Red Wings failed to score.

Defenseman Chris Tanev and center Brandon Sutter scored power-play goals for Vancouver. Right winger Alex Burrows collected two assists as the Canucks (3-2-3) lost their fourth consecutive game and remain winless at home.

It was the third time the Canucks blew a third-period at home.

"Leading 2-0 going into the third period, we've got to come out stronger than we did," said Tanev, who scored his first goal of the year.

"We've got to figure it out here. We've got to be more prepared going into the period. I felt we controlled the game the first two periods. We came out flat and it's 2-2 before you blink."

Sutter said there's no easy answer to why Vancouver keeps giving up the lead.

"They came hard and we just didn't have that response," he said. "It's not fun when you have a homestand like this.

"You look at the hockey we've played through it. We've played pretty well. We've just had five or 10-minute lapses where we're mentally not sharp and not doing things right."

Canucks coach Willie Desjardins acknowledged that the loss was frustrating.

"All the guys want to win," he said. "Whenever you want to win and that happens, you are going to be frustrated a little bit.

"But frustration doesn't get you a lot of things. You are blaming somebody. It's a negative thing. We have to be motivated. We have to find a way to get better. We can't be frustrated. We can't be intimidated. We have to find ways to get better."

NOTES: C Henrik Sedin played in his 1,100th NHL game, all with the Canucks. ... Daniel Sedin has played 31 less games than his twin brother. ... Vancouver is off to its worst home start since managing one win and three ties in their first six games of the 1994-95 season. ... D Yannick Weber returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for four games. ... D Matt Bartkowski and RW Adam Cracknell were healthy scratches. ... Vancouver's five-game homestand ends Tuesday against Montreal. ... D Mike Green and D Kyle Quincey were scratches after being injured in Detroit's 3-2 overtime loss to Calgary Friday. D Jakub Kindl replaced Green. ... D Alexey Marchenko played his third game in as many nights after being called up from Grand Rapids of the AHL. ... RW Tomas Jurco was a healthy scratch. ... C Brad Richards has been placed on IR. ... Detroit returns home to face Carolina Tuesday.