Recap and Rank Em: Hurricanes’ Point Streak Hits 11 in Overtime Loss to Red Wings

The Carolina Hurricanes came into tonight’s game just five points out of the final wild-card position on the front end of a two-game home set with the Detroit Red Wings. The game is the second in a series of three games in three nights for the Red Wings, due to the game that was postponed due to ice issues on December 19.

In crunch time the Canes extended their point streak to 11 games with an overtime loss to the Red Wings, thanks in large part to Justin Faulk who had two goals in the contest. Not to be totally outdone Jeff Skinner scored his 11th goal in his past 11 games.

Just like on Saturday, the Canes started fast and furious which led to a Jeff Skinner goal just five minutes into the first period. Things seemed to be going well when the Canes went to the power play less than two minutes later. However, Jordan Staal took a high-sticking penalty to make the game four-on-four.

After killing the penalty, the ice tilted in the favor of the Red Wings. Despite outshooting the Wings 29-15 through two periods, the Red Wings had three breakaways, and a 2-on-1 from the four-on-four through the end of the second. Two bad turnovers from Teuvo Teravainen and Jeff Skinner set up two Anthony Mantha breakaways that led to goals around a minute apart in the second.

Justin Faulk was able to reclaim momentum with a beautiful goal with just a minute left in the second. Faulk gathered a missed shot from Jaccob Slavin, toe dragged around Dylan Larkin and sniped one past over Petr Mrazek’s glove to tie the game up going into the second intermission.

The third period saw more of the same with a bad Hurricanes turnover leading to a Red Wings goal, Tomas Tatar giving the Wings the lead on a power play. Not to be denied, Faulk scored his second of the game with 51.1 seconds remaining, a point shot that went through a screen and right past Mrazek.

In overtime, both goalies traded saves before the Canes overcommitted a minute in, giving Andreas Athanasiou a breakaway which he put in for the game winner. This was Athanasiou’s second overtime game winner in as many nights.

On his goal, Athanasiou was pushed by Victor Rask into Eddie Lack. The contact came to Lack’s head and bent his neck violently. Lack was taken off the ice on a stretcher surrounded by both teams on the ice. It’s a real unfortunate turn for Lack who was playing his best hockey of the season leading up to this game. Lack was talking to trainers and gave a thumbs up as he was leaving the ice.

Rank the Performances

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