Nyquist Scores Twice in Season Debut as Red Wings Down Hurricanes

Making his first appearance of the season with Detroit, forward Gustav Nyquist scored twice to lead the Red Wings to a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

Nyquist had been buried in the American Hockey League with the Grand Rapids Griffins as the Red Wings didn’t have space under the salary cap to fit him on their roster. With defenseman Danny DeKeyser on long-term injured reserve, room opened up for Nyquist’s promotion.

Just 17 seconds into the game, Nyquist opened the scoring off the rebound of a Jonathan Ericsson chance. Henrik Zetterberg forced a turnover on the left wing in the Carolina end and carried the puck into the slot before dropping it off to Ericsson up high. Ericsson’s shot was knocked away but came right to Nyquist at the inside edge of the far faceoff circle, where he swatted a chance between the pads of Hurricanes’ netminder Justin Peters.

Darren Helm made it 2-0 at 2:37 of the second period. Justin Abdelkader drove to the front of the net from the right wing and had a shot blocked. The rebound came out to Helm in the slot for a quick snap past Peters.

Windsor-native Brett Bellemore’s first career goal got the Hurricanes on the board 2:12 later. Bellemore got the puck at the top of the left faceoff circle and sent it down low to Radek Dvorak before driving to the net all alone, getting the puck back at the hashmarks for a quick slapper past Detroit goalie Jonas Gustavsson.

With 7:09 left in the middle period, Andrej Sekara tied things up, carrying the puck from center ice into the slot untouched before snapping a shot past Gustavsson.

Detroit regained the lead at 8:29 of the second with a goal credited to Niklas Kronwall. Skating with a two-man advantage, Kronwall threw a shot on net from the slot that was blocked in front. The puck bounced out towards Jordan Staal, who inadvertently kicked it back into his own net.

Nyquist would round out the Red Wings’ scoring with 4:02 remaining, beating Peters between the pads on a breakaway chance.

Sekara rounded out the scoring with a shorthanded goal after Tomas Tatar couldn’t handle the rebound of Staal’s chance with 16 seconds remaining.

Kronwall’s goal was the only power play tally of the night. Each team had four tries with the man-advantage, including a long five-on-three.

Gustavsson stopped 24 of the 27 shots he faced for his fourth win of the season. Peters stopped 43 of 47 shots against.