The Carolina Hurricanes are making quite the late-season charge. Following a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at PNC Arena Tuesday night, the team has earned points in 12 straight games (8-0-4) and sits four points back of the Boston Bruins for the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot, with a game in hand.
Goalie Cam Ward, making his first start in four games, put up a strong showing in net for the Canes (34-27-14), stopping 21 of 22 Red Wings (31-33-12) shots for the win. The victory came on the heels of Monday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Red Wings in which goalie Eddie Lack was injured on the winning goal and had to be carried off on a stretcher.
Lack tweeted Monday night that everything looked OK and that he would go home from the hospital Monday night. The goalie attended a team meeting this morning, allowing his teammates to see with their own eyes that he was alright.
“I was able to talk to [Lack] late last night and was appreciative of him getting back to me so I could get some sleep,” Ward said. “It was great to hear that he was OK. We saw him this morning; he gave us a boost and we were able to focus on the match tonight.”
The Canes got on the board first a little more than halfway through the first period. Forward Lee Stempniak took a drop pass from forward Derek Ryan inside the blueline, carried it to the top of the right circle and snapped a shot through a screen over Wings goalie Jimmy Howard’s shoulder to make it 1-0.
“I think we all try and play the game the same way,” Stempniak said of his line with Ryan and forward Jeff Skinner. “I think we try and be smart defensively and be in the right spots, but at the same time make the plays then they’re there. It’s been nice to keep it going.”
The Canes extended their lead with 4:48 to go in the opening frame; forward Joakim Nordstrom buried the rebound off a point shot by defenseman Brett Pesce for a 2-0 Carolina lead. Nordstrom was shifted to a line with forwards Victor Rask and Teuvo Teravainen for Tuesday’s game and cashed in, another example of the team firing on all cylinders during its remarkable 12-game run.
“Absolutely, I think everyone’s doing a really good job,” said Nordstrom, who played in his 200th NHL game. “Night in, night out, we want to keep our foot on the pedal here moving forward.”
Ward came up with a big stop to keep the Canes up by a pair on a mid-second period power play, denying Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg with a point blank stop.
“[Ward] was real solid, big save on Zetterberg there on the penalty kill there, I believe it was 2-0 at the time,” head coach Bill Peters said. “That makes it 2-1 if that goes in; that’s huge. We talked about it earlier, it’s not only the number of saves, it’s the timing of the saves. That was a huge save, and to me it was the turning point in the game.”
The Canes got some excellent chances throughout the second, but Howard kept his team within two for most of the period. The Canes broke through with six minutes and change left in the middle frame, as forward Jordan Staal snuck a shot from the side boards that deflected off Wings defenseman Danny Dekeyser and in between Howard’s glove and pad, putting the home team up by three. Detroit played its third game in as many nights in this one, due to the first game of the back-to-back being a makeup of a mid-December postponement due to issues with PNC’s ice.
“I think they did a really good job not giving up too much, but for sure, I felt like we had a little bit more juice,” Nordstrom said.
Wings forward Tomas Nosek got Detroit on the board with his first NHL goal with 6:27 to play.
Forward Elias Lindholm pushed the Canes’ lead back to three with 2:38 to play, sealing the deal at 4-1 with a power-play goal.
The win continues the Canes’ late push to try and get back into the playoffs and ends the Red Wings’ incredible 25-season playoff streak. The Boston Bruins, who currently hold the East’s final wildcard spot, also won tonight, keeping the Canes at four points out with a game in hand. The team did, however, gain ground on a pair of idle fellow playoff contenders, drawing even with the New York Islanders at 82 points apiece and within one of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canes, Islanders and Lightning all have seven games left to play, while the Bruins have six.
“It’s a good run,” Peters said. “I think the question was are we capable of it [making the playoffs], and the answer was yes. Now you’re seeing it. In order to do it, you’ve got to find different ways to win. Some nights you’re going to have to grind out a point or maybe win a game when you’re not the better team. What we have going here, we’ve just got to keep going. We’ve got to make sure we’re looking after ourselves, getting the required amount of rest in order to continue to push.”
The Canes will continue their four-game homestand Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets in PNC, looking to push the point streak to 13 games.
