Canes end losing streak, beat Wings 3-1

The Carolina Hurricanes’ losing streak has ended at three games.

The Canes put together a strong team effort Monday and at times were dominating in a 3-1 road win over the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.

The Canes ended their power-play struggles with a pair of power-play goals -- from Justin Faulk and Micheal Ferland.

They ended their penalty-killing struggles with some hustling kills, getting a shorthanded, empty-net goal from Jordan Martinook in the final minute of regulation.

The Canes (5-3-1) also got a stellar game in net. Petr Mrazek made some scrambling stops among his 20 saves -- and got some timely help from Faulk in the third -- in besting his former team.

Finally, with the Wings desperately trying to tie the score, with a six-on-four advantage, the Canes’ Jaccob Slavin gathered in the puck and deftly skated his way out of the defensive zone to set up Martinook for the game-clincher.

“They earned a win,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They did the things right and there was no doubt who the better team was, and that’s the way we have to play.”

Every line contributed. Brock McGinn and the fourth line gave the Canes some early energy and effective forechecking. Jordan Staal’s line, with Justin Williams and Warren Foegele, were aggressive forecheckers throughout the game.

Faulk’s power-play goal late in the first period gave the Canes a 1-0 lead in a period in which Carolina once held a 14-0 lead in shots. Faulk, scoring his first of the season, moved past Glen Wesley into second place in franchise history for career points by a defenseman -- Faulk has 228 points, trailing only Dave Babych, who had 240 for the Hartford Whalers.

Ferland’s power-play score in the second was perfectly executed -- Sebastian Aho with a pass low to Valentin Zykov, who found Ferland open in the slot for his sixth goal of the season.

Aho now has points in all nine games, the longest season-opening streak in Hurricanes history.

The Canes, leading 2-0 in the third, weathered a push by the Wings (1-6-2). Andreas Athanasiou scored at 12:02 of the period and Mrazek and the Canes survived a wild flurry with less than fives minutes left in regulation.

With the Wings attacking the net on a power play, Mrazek made a save, had Faulk step into the crease to deny another on a shot by Athanasiou, then made a pad save.

“He made a couple of huge saves at the right times,” Brind’Amour said of Mrazek. “Obviously at the end there was a lot of scrambles. But it wasn’t just him. We had a bunch of guys diving in front of pucks and doing whatever they had to do to make sure we got the win.”

The Canes were last in the NHL in both the power play and penalty killing, and had to kill off two penalties in the third -- a boarding call against Martinook and then a delay-of-game penalty against Dougie Hamilton with 1:44 left in regulation.

The Wings had a six-on-four advantage after Hamilton, trying to clear the puck, lifted it over the glass for a penalty and the Wings pulled goalie Jimmy Howard for a sixth attacker. But McGinn blocked a shot and Slavin found Martinook for his empty netter.

“We had some real good kills tonight and what a play by Slavin at the end of the game,” Brind’Amour said.

Brind’Amour made some tweaks to the power-play units during Sunday’s practice, changing up some personnel. With the Canes 2-for-30 on the power play after eight games, something had to be done.

This night, it worked, allowing the Canes to move into first place in the Metropolitan Division with 11 points.

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 10:39 PM.