Hurricanes blow away losing streak beating Red Wings 3-1

 Elias Lindholm #28 of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates his first period goal with teammates Victor Rask #49 and Jordan Staal #11 as Andreas Athanasiou #72 of the Detroit Red Wings skates past during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on January 20, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Carolina Hurricanes started on time that left the Red Wings trailing on Saturday night. Their slow push to compete resulted in a 3-1 loss for them at Little Caesars Arena making it their second straight loss this week. Elias Lindholm had two goals on the night with goaltender Cam Ward earning a hard-earned win making 23 saves against Detroit for his first win since Jan. 4.

Detroit has had a lot of time off in the past few days without gaining wins in between the breaks. They face the hurricanes with a 1-3-0 record in their past four and Carolina going 1-4-0 in their past five. With both needing their first win in nearly a week the quest for control would determine on how the first few minutes went against the Eastern Conference teams.

Carolina got the early edge in the game gaining a power that that they didn’t waste much of. Justin Faulk took a shot that was blocked by Howard but a second chance came to Lindholm who scored his 13^th. During the play, Detroit was called for another penalty giving the Hurricanes time once more a man up. Although they didn’t convert on the second man advantage, they increased the shots at Howard nothing eight by the ten-minute mark of the period.

The Red Wings were stuck with two as they didn’t get the best start coach Jeff Blashill wanted from them. Detroit notched their third shot at Ward but not no potential scoring chance from it as the netminder made the pad stop. They got three more but it didn’t help them even the score as time fell off the clock and the Hurricanes remaining in control of the period. A scary moment occurred with Frans Nielsen falling on his neck after colliding with Josh Jooris who made sure he was all right. While it didn’t bring Detroit a power play, they got one with 4:29 left on Haydn Fleury holding Anthony Mantha.

The offensive unit did work to score one for the Red Wings giving Tomas Tatar a far end centering drive giving him his 12^th of the season. “I just tried putting into the net and I was fortunate to put it in,” Tatar said during the first intermission. “When you’re taking a one timer you want to put it on one side of the net and hope that it will go in.” Tying the game helped Detroit get more from the offense during even strength and get into a pace ending the first period strong. They were outshot 13-9 with Howard also building strength stopping Carolina on six scoring chances.

The second period was very slow for the teams as they returned to the ice. Through the first ten minutes of play, the Red Wings had two shots on goal against Ward while Carolina had only one to show. The game started to pick up but as five minutes elapsed, it wasn’t enough to make a difference to the score. When the period came to a close, Detroit had six but were still outshot with Carolina combining eight through twenty minutes.

The third was becoming a fight for the go-ahead goal as it would determine who was going to come out a winner on the night. Lindholm was responsible getting the Hurricanes ahead as they did work on the power play to give the forward his second of the night. The goal at 6:54 continued to hold as they built upon that a stance that kept the heat on Howard. It limited the number of chances that Detroit got which was becoming a problem with four minutes in regulation.

Martin Frk nearly had the game tied on a rifled shot that went off the post to Ward’s right. A second try that ended with Niklas Kronwall fell apart as gaining the opportunity for a second chance was killed off. Carolina rallied with a play that pressured Howard who had very little coverage in front of him. After some close chances, Justin Williams got a second try at scoring to do so with the puck going off the Detroit netminder scoring his eighth that sealed the victory for the Hurricanes to skate off victorious.

While they avoided extending their woes, the Red Wings would try to overcome losing their third straight meeting against the New Jersey Devils on Monday.