Roberto Luongo stressed that statement games were in the rear-view mirror.

He was right. Sort of.

With victories over San Jose, Boston and Chicago last month, the Vancouver Canucks beat the elite to prove a point but needed to make another kind of statement Thursday at Rogers Arena.

They needed to not only match the work ethic and skill level of the top-ranked Detroit Red Wings, they had to do it without winger Chris Higgins.

Sidelined by a flu-like illness that may not be related to two recent bouts of a staph infection that zapped his strength and stamina, the team's most-consistent grinding forward was sorely missed in a 4-3 shootout loss, when Pavel Datsyuk and Jiri Hudler were the only scorers in the skills session.

However, if the Canucks made any kind of statement, it was one of resilience.

Trailing 3-2 in the third period, it was a wrist shot by the much-maligned Mason Raymond, which deflected off defenceman Brad Stu-art and past Jimmy Howard at 15: 36, that helped turn what appeared to be certain defeat into an unlikely extended battle that went from downright dreary to high drama.

On a night where they were badly outplayed for two periods and forced to juggle their lines, Alex Bur-rows gave the Canucks life midway through the third period.

When Maxim Lapierre stripped Drew Miller off the puck, Burrows buried a slapshot for the equalizer after Hudler had provided the Wings with a 2-1 lead in the second period.

The euphoria didn't last long. Miller got his revenge and pounced on a loose puck off a rebound less than two minutes after the Burrows effort.

Through all the craziness, Luongo made the right kind of statement through regulation and overtime.

The Canucks starter kept his club in a game it had no business being in, and when Hudler snapped a second-period draw with a slapshot to the glove side, it was the end result of a Detroit domination that started with the drop of the first puck.

After all, it took the Canucks 12: 50 of the second period to muster a shot after the Wings fired 11, and when Justin Abdelkader got the best of Lapierre in a brief bout after the Hudler effort, it seemed fitting.

The Canucks were being outplayed and outshot 30-11 through two periods, but somehow managed to stay within striking range. And that's what they can really take away.

The Canucks generated little at even strength and simply couldn't penetrate. And when they did, the fancy plays they usually execute were easily swept away.

The top line was invisible for too long and the puck battles the club is accustomed to winning were lost.

The best effort was when David Booth did the spade work to out-muscle Datsyuk along the end boards before bolting to the net and getting a shot away. Ryan Kesler, one of the few Canucks with jump, then jammed home the rebound to erase a 1-0 lead provided by Daniel Cleary.

Raymond was promoted to the second line in the absence of Higgins and had zero impact until his equalizer.

Manny Malhotra played on an ineffective third alignment with rookie-of-the-month Cody Hodgson and Jannik Hansen, while defence-man Andrew Alberts was pressed into duty as the fourth-line winger.

Alain Vigneault even tried Daniel Sedin with Kesler and Booth to start the third period and played musical lines until something clicked.

Before Hudler snapped the tie, Luongo managed to get his glove on a shot after Johan Franzen was sprung on a partial break by a long Todd Bertuzzi back pass. He then had to move quickly from post-to-post to stop a pinching Nicklas Lidstrom on a power-play chance before stopping a hot slot shot by Cory Emmerton.

The Wings not only opened scoring early, they dominated the first period.

When Bertuzzi easily bowled over a backchecking Raymond after Kevin Bieksa made a positioning gaffe and the winger forced Luongo to make a tough save, it was a sign of some bad times.

It was quickly followed by Cleary dancing around Dan Hamhuis, who got caught flat- footed on a stick check, and picking the far side on Luongo.

Alex Edler was then forced to take a tripping penalty to prevent Dat-syuk dashing away on a breakaway. Franzen followed by easily working his way around Hamhuis and, with an early lead and 10-1 shot advantage, it looked like the Wings might make short work of the Canucks. They didn't.

bkuzma@theprovince.com

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