RECAP: Red Wings fall to Hurricanes in finale of three-game road trip, 4-2

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Detroit Red Wings’ season-high seven-game point streak ended with a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Friday night.

The loss to Carolina (25-14-5; 55 points) also snapped a five-game road winning streak for Detroit (23-17-5; 51 points), which claimed four of a possible six points on its three-game road trip. Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon made 26 saves, while Hurricanes netminder Antti Raanta turned aside 10 shots.

“The goal going into every road trip is get as many points or more as games played,” Detroit head coach Derek Lalonde said. “Four points in three games, so we won the road trip. But it just felt like a little bit of a missed opportunity tonight.”

Getting Detroit on the board first, Klim Kostin netted his third goal of the season 2:27 into the first period. After Joe Veleno collected a pass from Daniel Sprong near center ice, he snuck a pass through Carolina’s Brady Skjei to Kostin on the rush. The Russian forward then fired a shot that hit Raanta’s glove and trickled into the net, making it 1-0.

“He’s playing with some confidence,” Lalonde said about Kostin. “It gives us an opportunity to have rhythm with four lines.”

The Red Wings' early lead would less last than 30 seconds. At 3:14 of the first period, Jordan Martinook deflected Brent Burns’ shot past Lyon to extend his goal streak to a career-high four straight games to tie it at 1-1 for the Hurricanes. Carolina outshot Detroit, 8-3, through the opening 20 minutes and 30-12 on the night.

As a relatively uneventful second period was nearing its conclusion, Martin Necas weaved through the offensive zone before sniping a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle for his 10th goal of the season to push the Hurricanes in front (2-1) with 3:35 to play.

But the Red Wings didn't back down, and on the power play at the 19:17 mark of the second period, made it a 2-2 game. Capitalizing on a 2-on-1 rush, J.T. Compher buried captain Dylan Larkin's feed for his 10th goal of the season.

The secondary assist went to Shayne Gostisbehere, who leads all Red Wings defensemen in assists (24), points (31) and power-play points (19) through 44 games this season

“We feel like we’re in any game,” Compher said. “Even if we’re not playing our best or we’re down one. That’s been throughout our lineup. There’s plenty of belief in this locker room.”

Carolina took a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal from Andrei Svechnikov at 10:46 of the third period. After Sebastian Aho’s shot went off the stick of Michael Bunting, Svechnikov got to the loose puck and beat Lyon five-hole for his 11th goal of the season.

Aho added an empty netter at 18:44 of the third period to wrap up the 4-2 final.

Ben Chiarot (upper body) exited in the third period and did not return to the game.

“Something’s been nagging him here,” Lalonde said about Chiarot. “Tweaked it again, so hopefully nothing too concerning.”

Jake Walman returned to the lineup after missing the last three games due to illness. Jeff Petry played in his 900th career NHL game.

“I think it’s a really good road trip,” Compher said. “Disappointing result tonight. That’s a really good hockey team in this building. They play super tight and their way. Probably didn’t do enough to break through offensively.”

NEXT UP: On Sunday night, the Red Wings will host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Little Caesars Arena to kick off a five-game homestand before the 2024 NHL All-Star Break (Feb. 1-9).

Puck drop for Sunday’s Atlantic Division clash has been moved from 5 p.m. ET to 7 p.m. ET in response to the Detroit Lions’ NFC Divisional Round matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers set for 3 p.m. ET at Ford Field. For more information, click here.

QUOTABLE

Lalonde on Detroit's play in Carolina

“We could have done more. There’s a way to play against this team. You almost have to flip what they do. They blindly just put everything on net and want to create races and havoc. I think you have to do that to them also.”

Compher on his takeaways from Friday’s game

“Overall, we did a lot of good things. I feel like they didn’t have a lot of great scoring opportunities. We probably want to have the one back where we let No. 88 get a few too many chances in the slot, but the other ones are just throwing the puck to the net and that’s what they’re good at.”

Compher on Detroit’s upcoming five-game homestand

“We want to keep it rolling. We’re playing good hockey, a good chance to get home. It feels like we’ve been on the road for a couple weeks. It’s been a long road trip, so it will be nice to get home in front of our fans and try to get as many points as possible before the break.”

Lyon on the positives he is pulling from the three-game road trip

“Obviously we lost tonight, but I’m a big believer in if you just play the right way good things are going to happen. I think tonight we played the right way. Obviously it’s the third game of a three-game road trip against a very difficult team in a difficult building. I thought the boys played so hard tonight. We played the right way. I thought it was one of our tightest defensive games in a long time, give a lot of credit to the d-men and the forwards.”

Lyon on his night against the Hurricanes

“It wasn’t my ultra-sharp game for sure. You always want to make the critical save in the critical moment. I wish I could have had the third one. First one, probably would have played differently. But again, it’s not something I’m going to worry or think about too much. It’s the beauty of the goaltending position is you just got to move on and have a short memory, so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to get back to the details and keep working hard.”