For better and for worse, Thursday, Dec. 16’s game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Detroit Red Wings had a little bit of everything. A short-staffed Canes squad rode an NHL debut goal by center Jack Drury and a handful of veteran performances to beat the Red Wings 5-3.
Drury’s goal capped off a five-goal first period and gave Carolina (20-7-1) a 3-2 lead over Detroit (14-13-3) heading into the first intermission. Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi spotted Drury flying into the slot and dealt him the puck, which Drury promptly bounced off of Detroit goalie and former Carolina Hurricane Alex Nedeljkovic before scoring on the rebound. With his family in attendance, the 21-year-old rookie was ecstatic to score in his first NHL game.
“That was incredible,” Drury said. “Really fun to get the win and obviously getting the goal was really cool too.”
The influx of fresh faces resulted from the absence of six Hurricanes regulars from the lineup, all due to COVID-19 protocol. Right wing Andrei Svechnikov, defenseman Ian Cole and centers Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, Jordan Staal and Steven Lorentz were all missing from the game against Detroit with an injury to defenseman Jalen Chatfield complicating matters on the Canes’ blue line as well.
Consequently, the Canes made three emergency call-ups from its AHL affiliate to bring Drury, center Andrew Poturalski and right wing Stefan Noesen to the senior team.
On the other bench, the Red Wings were attempting to keep pace in a competitive Eastern Conference by improving their fortunes on the road. Detroit had a 4-9-1 away record heading into Raleigh, but the Canes secured their eighth home win of the season thanks to a handful of timely performances from their veterans.
Six Hurricanes logged over 20 minutes on the ice; defenseman Jaccob Slavin leading the way with 23:55. With the Canes missing several key pieces, it was imperative that the remaining mainstays of the lineup step up if Carolina was going to win, and they did just that.
“Obviously we missed a lot of key players,” said right wing Nino Niederreiter. “We knew coming into this game that the older guys got to step up and lead by example. I think that’s what we did and the younger guys followed us up. It was a really good, gutsy win for us.”
Niederreiter took the cake in terms of veteran presence, however, scoring twice including the go-ahead goal early in the third period. A stray puck slipped by Detroit’s defensemen, giving Niederreiter a golden breakaway opportunity. Niederreiter capitalized on the chance by slinging a swift shot past Nedeljkovic to put Carolina up 4-3 just 18 seconds into the third period.
Kotkaniemi and center Jesper Fast both made their marks on the game as well, notching two assists each. Poturalski also got his first NHL point with an assist on Niederreiter’s first goal while Trocheck, left wing Teuvo Teräväinen and center Martin Nečas rounded out the point-scoring action for the forwards.
The Canes will look to build on this gutsy win when it takes on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, Dec. 18 in PNC Arena. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
