Red Wings’ Streak Reaches Six with Win over Hurricanes

The Detroit Red Wings extended their winning streak to six games Sunday night, earning a 5-2 victory over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

Carolina’s loss stretches their regular season winless streak at Joe Louis Arena to thirteen games. The Hurricanes earned a victory in Detroit in the first game of the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals but haven’t picked up two points in Michigan since November 14, 1989, when the team was still the Hartford Whalers.

The Red Wings had three one-goal leads on the night, with the Hurricanes bouncing back to tie twice.

Valtteri Filppula got Detroit on the board at 4:35 of the first period. Filppula broke in on Carolina netminder Cam Ward from the right wing and almost beat him, putting the puck under his pad. Mikael Samuelsson crashed the net, poking at the puck but not before Ward had pulled his pad – puck included – across the goal line.

Erik Cole scored the first of his two goals just 46 seconds into the second period, tying things back up. His first shot from the side of the net was stopped by Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek but Cole swatted the rebound out of mid-air, over the falling Hasek.

A power play goal at 6:02 of the period put the Wings back out in front. Tic-tac-toe passing on the right side of the ice moved the puck from Dan Cleary to Niklas Kronwall to Jiri Hudler and back to Cleary for a quick shot on net. At the top of the crease, Johan Franzen tipped it past Ward.

Carolina evened things up on a power play of their own 4:34 later. Cole scored his second goal of the night, scoring from the right wing when his shot on net deflected off the stick of Detroit’s Brian Rafalski.

Andreas Lilja scored a rare goal with 7:20 remaining in the middle frame, giving the Red Wings another lead on a rocket shot from inside the blue line.

Detroit would make that lead hold.

With 2:38 remaining in regulation, Pavel Datsyuk added an insurance marker. Datsyuk stole the puck from Eric Staal at the Carolina blue line and broke in alone on Ward. Cutting from his right to left, Datsyuk faked out Ward and lifted a shot over him.

Tomas Holmstrom wrapped up the game’s scoring 36 seconds later. Henrik Zetterberg broke into the Hurricanes’ zone, catching Ward on his way to the bench for an extra attacker. Ward made it back into the crease to stop Zetterberg’s shot but was out of position on Holmstrom’s rebound chance.

Each team scored one power play goal. Detroit had seven chances with the extra attacker while Carolina had five.

Hasek stopped 15 of 17 shots to earn his third-straight win after backing up Chris Osgood for six of seven games. Ward made 33 saves on 38 shots against.

The Red Wings return to action on Monday in Nashville, with Osgood getting the start in net.