VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Four straight victories by the road team seems to have turned the Red Wings vs. Canucks into the home-ice disadvantage series. A more appropriate title would be the redirection series.

Vancouver used some timely deflections in Games 1 and 2 to shock heavily-favored Detroit at Hockeytown's Joe Louis Arena. Then Detroit evened the Western Conference quarterfinal series with two wins at Vancouver's GM Place, thanks in part to some fortunate bounces.

"I've never seen so many redirections going in," said Detroit head coach Scotty Bowman after the Red Wings defeated the Canucks 4-2 in Game 4 Tuesday night. "I mean not that the goalies can stop them."

After eight Stanley Cup championships and 334 career playoff games, you'd think the Hall of Famer would have seen it all. But every redirected puck that ends up in the net seems to carry each game's -- and ultimately the series' -- momentum.

The No. 1-seeded Red Wings were expected to dominate the series like they had while winning the Presidents' Trophy as the regular-season points champion. But a feisty Canucks club used its speed, size and some timely deflections in Games 1 and 2 to seize control of the series.

With that control came higher expectations and overconfidence by some in a city overjoyed and starved for this rare postseason success. Though at times the young Canucks thrived and fed off the energy of a frenzied, towel-waving Vancouver crowd, they couldn't always regenerate it into positive results on the ice.

Although the Canucks dominated the start of Game 4, the Red Wings took a 2-0 lead midway through the first period on long shots from the point (by defensemen Jiri Fischer and Chris Chelios) that pinballed their way past Canucks goaltender Dan Cloutier.

"In the first two games, it seemed like we were getting bounces and the last two they got some bounces. That's the way things go in a series like this," Canucks center Brendan Morrison said. "You can't get too high or too low and you just have to stay focused. You never know what can happen."

Nobody knows that better than Detroit, as it failed to protect the lead and allowed goals by Mattias Ohlund and Matt Cooke to tie the game at 2 just before the end of the second period.

The sudden turn of events even prompted Bowman to make an obvious point to his veteran team in the second intermission. In case they hadn't noticed by the tilted ice and the Canucks' 20-11 shot advantage, the Red Wings needed to generate more offense.

"I don't say a lot, but I did talk to them and say we had to put some attack in this game," he said afterward with a scratchy voice that hinted he made his intermission point at a much higher volume. "I mean we're down to one period ... now we're tied. The period's gonna decide if you're gonna be even (in the series) or you're gonna be two (games) down. It's sorta like overtime."

It took only 56 seconds for the Red Wings to respond, as captain Steve Yzerman scored the go-ahead goal.

"They're gonna get some goals. They're a good hockey club. They're a talented hockey club," said Red Wings center Kris Draper, who scored an empty-netter. "But the thing is there's no panic in our hockey club. And obviously it's easy to say that when you come out and Stevie scores right off the hop for us. That was a huge goal to be able to do that."

Though Draper said the Wings don't sit on leads well, the third period was a different matter as they tightened up defensively and held Vancouver to just four shots.

As they did in Game 3, the Red Wings controlled the neutral zone and did a good job of clearing rebounds away from goalie Dominik Hasek. But looking ahead to Game 5 in this now best-of-three series, it's not defense or his once-struggling netminder that has Bowman concerned. He'll be repeating his second intermission message for more attacking offensively.

"As the series goes on the importance the elevation is there, and I think everybody realizes what's at stake," Bowman said. "I thought it would be a long series, and there's no question now it's gonna be."

Draper said the Wings will stick with the must-win approach they took into Games 3 and 4, eliminating the turnovers and mistakes that hurt them previously at home.

"You fall down 3-2, you're facing elimination. We're staying a desperate hockey club," he said. "We've gotta do everything we can to win Game 5. You don't want to get behind. We did what we had to do: We came here and we won both hockey games. Now it's a matter of going back into our building and winning that hockey game. The bottom line is we gotta go out, we gotta play the kind of hockey we played out here and go back and play that in our building and be confident.

The Canucks don't intend to change their approach either. They're coming off their best defensive game of the series, know they have won twice at Joe Louis Arena and are matching up with the Wings better than many thought a No. 8 seed would or could.

"The guys are still positive, no one's hanging their heads at all. And we feel we can still get this done," said Morrison, who was replaced on the Canucks' top line by Andrew Cassels in the second half of the third period. Morrison, who teamed with Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund to be one of the league's most dangerous combinations through the last half of the season, could help his team's fortunes with fewer rushed passes and turnovers.

High-energy players such as Cooke and Trevor Letowski nearly lifted Vancouver to a 3-1 series lead, but the Canucks need more production from their power play (1-for-6 in Game 4) and the NHL's second-leading points producer, Naslund (one goal in the series) if they are to pull off an upset.

"It's definitely frustrating. I thought it was our best game of the series. But they found a way, and now you gotta give them credit again," Cloutier said. "But if we keep playing the way we (did Tuesday night), I think that's the way we have to take the positives out of it. We outplayed them, and we deserved better."

Jim Wilkie is an editor for ESPN.com's Page 2.