Detroit cruises to 4-1 win

Valtteri Filppula and Nicklas Lidstrom scored in the first period, helping Detroit to a 4-1 victory over Calgary in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series Thursday night at Detroit.

In other playoff openers:

Zach Parise scored his second goal on a give-and-go with Jamie Langenbrunner early in the third period, leading the New Jersey Devils to a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at East Rutherford, N.J.... The New York Rangers scored the first two goals and never trailed in holding off the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-3, at Atlanta.... Chris Drury and Brian Campbell each scored two goals and the Buffalo Sabres defeated the New York Islanders, 4-1, at Buffalo, N.Y.

WEDNESDAY’S LATE GAME

Vancouver 5, Dallas 4 -- Roberto Luongo made 72 saves and Henrik Sedin scored 18:06 into the fourth overtime to lift the Canucks to victory at Vancouver, Canada.

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San Jose’s Jonathan Cheechoo had an MRI exam on his injured right knee, but the severity of the injury is not known. Cheechoo declined interview requests. He had a knee-on-knee collision with Nashville forward Scott Hartnell in the Sharks’ 5-4 double overtime victory Wednesday night.