So, goaltender Cam Ward made 28 saves and Carolina held on for a
2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on Friday
night.
The Hurricanes lost 5-2 to the Washington Capitals on Thursday night
in Carolina's final home contest of the season.
"Was kind of disgusted with our performance last night and wanted to
play a better game," said Hurricanes center Elias Lindholm, who
scored the winning goal.
It was the franchise's first win in Detroit since Nov. 14, 1989,
when they were the Hartford Whalers.
"That's funny. We had an optional game-day skate and (assistant
coach) Rod Brind'Amour told us about that," Ward said. "You feel
good that we were able to erase that record and come up with a win."
The Red Wings had already clinched their 23rd consecutive playoff
appearance.
Left winger Jiri Tlusty scored for Carolina (35-35-11).
"It was a sound effort. We needed to respond after the way we lost
last night," Hurricanes captain Eric Staal said.
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Center Riley Sheahan had the goal for Detroit (38-28-15) in its
final home game of the season. Goaltender Jimmy Howard stopped 17
shots.
"I don't think we had much intensity through two periods. I thought
we had a good push, but the reality is we weren't good enough," Red
Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "We had tons of chances. Their
goaltender was good, but we didn't play right. When you don't play
hard enough, you don't play right, you don't win. As a group we
weren't good enough."
Detroit was coming off a playoff-clinching 4-3 shootout loss in
Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.
Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall admitted the team suffered a
letdown on Friday night.
"Yeah, but it shouldn't be. You can't be satisfied," he said. "Sure,
it felt great the other day, no doubt. It was kind of a weird
feeling. We didn't win the game but we did accomplish something we
were thriving for.
"At the same time we wanted to get to the next (playoff) spot, see
how high we could get in the standings before starting the playoffs.
Tonight wasn't a very good performance the first two periods. I
thought we got playing better in the third, but we've got to play
more than 20 minutes to win games."
Detroit is in the last (eighth) playoff spot in the Eastern
Conference.
It was the next-to-last regular-season game for both teams.
[to top of second column] |
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Ward made an outstanding skate save on left winger Justin
Abdelkader's one-timer from the bottom of the right circle with 9:32
left after Abdelkader took a pass from center Pavel Datsyuk on a
two-on-one rush.
Sheahan's power-play goal 3:43 into the third period put the Red
Wings on the board and made it 2-1. He sent in his own rebound on
the second try off a goal-mouth scramble for Sheahan's eighth goal
of the season. Detroit defenseman Jakub Kindl knocked the puck out of the air
and out of the crease area as it was about to go in the net behind
Howard midway through the second period.
Ward used a poke check to foil Detroit right winger Thomas Jurco on
a breakaway 2:14 into the second period.
Carolina led 2-0 after the first period.
Linholm opened the scoring with a power-play goal 8:15 into the
game. He beat Howard with a forehand from below the bottom of the
left circle after taking a pass with his back to the goalie
alongside the net. It was Linholm's ninth goal of the season.
Tlusty made it 2-0 with his 16th goal of the season with 1:36 left
in the opening period when he put in a rebound.
NOTES: Carolina right winger Alexander Semin didn't play because of
an upper-body injury and is likely out for Friday's season finale in
Philadelphia. ... Detroit ends the season in St. Louis on Sunday
afternoon. ... Detroit G Jonas Gustavsson was not in uniform on
Friday night because of a sore shoulder. Petr Mrazek was called up
from the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins to back up Howard. ... Carolina
LW Nathan Gerbe, who returned after missing a game with an
upper-body injury, is from the Detroit suburb of Oxford. ... Red
Wings C and captain Henrik Zetterberg, who underwent back surgery in
February, is not expected to return until the second round of the
playoffs, if Detroit makes it that far. ... Hurricanes assistant
coach Dave Lewis is a former head coach, assistant coach and player
with Detroit. ... Carolina goaltending coach Greg Stefan played with
the Red Wings for his entire NHL career (1981-90).
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