Red Wings end losing streak in 3-1 win over Hurricanes

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The Red Wings brought an end to a losing streak at the Little Caesars Arena Saturday night. A milestone from captain Henrik Zetterberg was just the start of Detroit’s 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. It added their fifth loss in a row while it brought life to the home team who has struggled over the course of the week.

Detroit’s home loss to the Buffalo Sabres put them in a spot of high vulnerability with less only 22 games left to play and the postseason shutting its door for a second straight season in Hockeytown. While they gained a point from Thursday’s loss, it would be either team coming out victorious with both on a losing streak. Carolina suffered a tough 6-1 loss to the Penguins Friday making it their fourth consecutive loss. Both teams didn’t skate pregame leaving it up to their naturals talents to determine who would win.

The Hurricanes got a jump on Detroit through the first several minutes shooting eight on Jimmy Howard while they prevented any from the Red Wings going after Scott Darling. Justin Faulk thought he had his team up 1-0 but a distinct kicking motion occurred on the play negating his scoring chance to leave the game scoreless. Carolina continued their power play but couldn’t convert on it due to strong penalty killing from Detroit.

The Red Wings caught a break against their Eastern Conference opponents but it was a long road with seven minutes left in the period to come up with a strong response. They got two shots and hunted down a chance to make the period mean something. It happened with a view from Danny DeKeyser who saw his side of his ice open launching a shot to Darling’s left giving the defenseman his fifth of the season.

“X (Ouelett) and I switched there at the blue line to confused their wingers a little bit, opened up some room and Larkin made a great play to find me and luckily it went in,” DeKeyser said to Fox Sports Detroit reporter Trevor Thompson. Detroit had only four shots with four minutes to go but the goal helped them out to push their offense for more.

A bouncer nearly gave Detroit a second but Darling threw himself around the area where the net was to hold off the lead from increasing. Two minutes were left in the game and the Red Wings slowly crawled their way back to gain three more to be outshot 10-7 through twenty. They also had the Red Wings beat at the faceoff dot that needed serious improvements going into the second.

Detroit got caught for a penalty putting the Hurricanes on the power play a second time but they failed to even the game on the advantage. Despite having troubles on special teams, they picked up where they left off at the beginning of the game to lead the Red Wings on shots in the period. While it was only 6-4 through ten minutes of play, they had a lot of close opportunities with one that Howard stopped right on the post.

While he had the lower part of the net covered, the Hurricanes beat him on a high cornered shot from Noah Hanifin for his eighth. Detroit had a chance to get back control of the score on their first man advantage and scored halfway in with Zetterberg scoring on a redirect that gave him for Gustav Nyquist’s drive and his ninth of the season. The team leader got his 100^th career power play goal as a Red Wing and put him fifth on the all-time Red Wings with 335 goals. “It’s an hour to be tied with Mr. Lindsay,” he said after the game. “To be honest, I’d be pretty happy just staying there on the record books with him.”

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The Red Wings couldn’t yet celebrate as there were five minutes left in the period with Carolina back on the power play. It was negated with 30 seconds to go giving Detroit another shot at increasing their top line. A hi stick to Frans Nielsen gave Detroit a third power play that resulted in a 3-1 lead on Trevor Daley’s shot inside the right post for his sixth. When the period came to a close, it was the Red Wings who outshot the Hurricanes 10-7 with a lead they hoped to keep together through the remainder of regulation.

Detroit played a lot more defense in the period carrying the notion of their two-goal lead and their mission to hold it. Through the first six minutes, they only had four shots on goal and got another power play that didn’t go right for them on their third try. Despite the missed opportunity, they killed off time while Howard had his eyes on the puck stopping anything that came to him.

It was 6-5 on shots on goal with Detroit’s effort taking care of 14 minutes of play and more as they inched closer to what was looking like a victory. With 1:51 left, Carolina pulled Darling from the net with a two-goal margin still holding but six men playing offense for them. It fell apart as they took one final penalty that brought Darling back in to secure their victory and end the slide at home. As the team celebrated the win, the squad of 25 saluted the crowd before skating off the ice.

Howard ended his own three game losing streak making 28 saves for a .966 save percentage. With the monkey off his and the Red Wings backs, they’ll try to make something big happen when they go on back to back games facing the New York Rangers on the road.