What happened as the Hurricanes’ 8-game win streak ends in loss to Red Wings

There are no good ways for a team to have a long winning streak come to an end.

There are bad ways, however.

The Carolina Hurricanes had their eight-game win streak snapped Tuesday by the Detroit Red Wings, who outplayed the Canes in a 4-2 victory at Little Caesars Arena.

“I thought we played pretty well but they played a good game, they played hard,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s it. We move on. It certainly wasn’t from a lack of effort.”

It was Carolina’s first loss in March and the first since a 3-1 defeat at Tampa Bay on Feb. 25.

The Canes (20-7-1) had too many penalties. They allowed two power-play goals. Their goalie, James Reimer, was shaky much of the game. He twice lost his stick, gave up too many rebounds and was outplayed by the Wings’ Jonathan Bernier.

The Canes had 37 shots as defenseman Dougie Hamilton finished with 11, a career high, while also extending his point streak to nine games. But Bernier made the big stops and the Wings helped him by blocking another 14.

The Wings took the 3-2 lead in the second on a rush into the Canes zone as Dylan Larkin carried the puck up ice, dropped off a pass to Robby Fabbri for the score at 12:28. Filip Hronek had an empty-netter in the final seconds of regulation after Reimer was pulled for an extra attacker.

The Canes have often found ways to win games this season when they have not been at their best. They weren’t at their best Tuesday — and they couldn’t find a way to win against the Wings.

“We’ve been winning and sometimes you can get a little too satisfied and think things are getting a little easier,” Canes forward Nino Niederreiter said. “But things actually get harder and harder. The more you win, the more other teams want to beat us.”

Niederreiter had the first goal of the game, his 13th of the season, scoring on a power play for the Canes early in the first period. Sebastian Aho then scored his 11th early in the second for Carolina to tie the score 2-2.

But the Red Wings (9-17-4) always had a response. Adam Erne scored twice on the power play in the first, taking advantage of Reimer without a stick to score the second. Both came off rebounds.

“We didn’t win the special teams war,” Brind’Amour said. “We gave up those two early. It’s hard to come back when you give up two on the penalty kill. Our power play got one but it wasn’t that good.

“We didn’t execute it and that’s the game right there. Five on five I thought we were fine. We didn’t give up a heck of a lot.”

In the second, the Wings scrambled to keep the Canes from scoring shorthanded and take the lead. Bernier smothered the puck among a pile of bodies in the crease.

The Canes pressured Bernier in the third, forcing him into some tough stops. On the Canes’ end, forward Brock McGinn blocked a shot with Reimer well out of position to keep it a 3-2 game.

The Canes again played without injured center Vincent Trocheck, who missed his third game. Forward Warren Foegele left the game with an upper-body injury and Brind’Amour did not have an update on his condition after the game.

Hamilton, who assisted on the Aho goal, has the longest active point streak in the league. He tied Ulf Samuelsson (1987-88) for the second-longest point streak in franchise history by a defenseman — Mark Howe had an 11-game point streak in 1979-80.

The Canes next have another scheduling quirk: four straight games against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The first two will be at PNC Arena, where they go at it Thursday.

Injury report

Brind’Amour was asked Tuesday if center Trocheck could be ruled “day to day” or “week to week.” Trocheck missed his third game Tuesday with an upper-body injury while rookie center Morgan Geekie played in a third straight game.

“I think when we get back (to Raleigh) we’ll have a clearer understanding of what’s going on,” Brind’Amour said of Trocheck’s injury status.

Goalie Petr Mrazek (thumb surgery) will miss his 23rd game and forward Teuvo Teravainen (concussion) his fifth straight. Teravainen has been out 12 of the past 13 games.

Of note

The Canes on Tuesday recalled defenseman Joey Keane and goaltender Beck Warm to the team’s taxi squad from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. Defenseman Joakim Ryan and goaltender Antoine Bibeau were reassigned to Chicago.

Keane, 21, has eight assists in 13 AHL games with the Wolves this season. Warm, 21, has posted a 5-1-0 record with a 2.02 goals-against average, a .944 save percentage and one shutout in six AHL games with Chicago.

This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 7:08 PM.

Chip Alexander

The News & Observer

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In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.