Monday night was a brutal one for the Carolina Hurricanes. In a 4-3 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings at PNC Arena, goalie Eddie Lack suffered a serious injury on the game-winning goal and had to be stretchered off the ice.
The team released an official statement after the game.
“Eddie Lack is currently undergoing tests at UNC Rex Hospital,” the Hurricanes announced. “He does have full feeling in his extremities. The Hurricanes will provide additional information about his condition when it is available.”
In sudden-death overtime, Red Wings (31-32-12) forward Andreas Athanasiou took a loose puck out of the defensive zone, steamed in and scored on his backhand to win the game, 4-3. Lack suffered his injury on the play; Canes (33-27-14) forward Victor Rask was trailing the play and tried to push Athanasiou off course, leading to him inadvertently colliding with Lack.
“It was a double-header there with the goal and Eddie going down,” forward Jordan Staal said. “It’s hard to think about the game, and our thoughts and prayers are with Eddie.”
Athanasiou appeared to make contact with Lack’s head; the Swedish netminder has been out on two different occasions with concussions this season. Lack was lifted onto the stretcher by trainers and EMS before being carried off. Both teams stayed on the ice as Lack was tended to and lifted onto the stretcher and tapped their sticks on the ice as he was carried out. Lack did give a thumbs up from the stretcher as he was taken away.
“[You’re just hoping] that Eddie’s OK, or whoever it might be,” defenseman Justin Faulk said of the players’ mindset during the scary scene. “You’re not really thinking about anything else. Nothing else is going through your head at the time. I’m sure on [the Red Wings] end too. Guys that are hurt like that and need help getting up, that’s more important than anything we do with hockey.”
With 51.1 seconds to play in regulation, Faulk came up with his second goal of the game and possibly the biggest of the Canes’ season. Faulk took the puck at the top of the key and snapped a shot top shelf to tie the game at three with goalie Lack on the bench for an extra skater and get the Canes a huge point in the standings, moving them within four of the final wild-card spot with a game in hand on Boston.
“It’s a great point,” head coach Bill Peters said. “There’s not a guy in this room other than maybe myself who thought we were going to tie that up. To get a point out of that is huge, and we need to learn from the way we played today to be better tomorrow.”
The Canes got off to a quick start in this game; forward Jeff Skinner took a pass from defenseman Jaccob Slavin at the left circle and blasted a shot through goalie Petr Mrazek’s legs for his eighth goal in the last six games and team-leading 31st of the season a little more than five minutes in.
Lack came up with a big stop with about seven minutes left in the third, denying Red Wings forward Darren Helm on a clear-cut breakaway to keep the Canes up a goal. Lack had been playing his best hockey of the season of late, winning five of his last six starts coming into this game, rebounding from a tough start to the season and making the ending of the game even tougher to take.
“He’s had a tough season with injuries and all the stuff that’s gone on for him,” Staal said. “To see him play as well as he has of late and give us a chance to make a push here, it’s been a lot of fun. Hopefully he recovers from this quick and is back on the ice very soon.”
The Wings tied the game about nine minutes into the second period, as forward Anthony Mantha got behind the Canes’ defense for a breakaway and beat Lack high on the blocker side.
Mantha was gifted yet another breakaway barely over a minute later and made a nifty move to the backhand to give Detroit a 2-1 lead.
“I think guys were trying so hard to do good things that it made it harder than it needed to be,” Peters said. “We definitely gave some up some good looks through the neutral zone.”
Late in the second with the Canes needing a spark, Faulk delivered. The All-Star blueliner came off the side boards, took a loose puck, toe dragged around Wings forward Dylan Larkin to get open between the circles and snapped a shot by Mrazek to tie it at two with less than a minute to go in the middle frame.
The Red Wings carried the play for the first half of the third, and cashed in on a man advantage with 11:30 to play. Forward Tomas Tatar fired home a feed from forward Henrik Zetterberg to make it 3-2.
This game was a rescheduled matchup of a postponement from mid-December due to issues with the ice at PNC. The Canes and Wings will play again at PNC Tuesday; it will be a quick turnaround as the Canes try to regroup and rally around their injured teammate.
“We are going to regroup,” Peters said. “We’re going to come back with the right answer tomorrow. Right now, I think everyone’s thinking about their teammate. That’s kind of where our thoughts are. We’ll come in tomorrow and know more about that situation; then we’ll refocus on hockey.”
