Red Wings beat Hurricanes on Athanasiou's OT goal
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Andreas Athanasiou scored with 3:01 left in overtime, and Petr Mrazek stopped 39 shots as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Monday night.
Carolina (33-27-14) did extend its point streak to 11 straight (7-0-4) to move within four points of Boston for the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot with eight games remaining. The Hurricanes, who have missed the postseason seven straight years, also have a game in hand on the Bruins.
Carolina's point streak is its best since a 12-game stretch in October and November by the 2006 Stanley Cup champion team. Meanwhile, Jeff Skinner extended his goal streak to six straight games and now has 11 goals since March 9 with his 31st of the season.
Tomas Tatar's team-leading 23rd goal of the season on the power play with 11:30 left gave Detroit a 3-2 lead. It appeared the goal would hold up, but Justin Faulk's wrist shot with Eddie Lack pulled for the extra attacker with 52 seconds left in regulation -- his second goal of the game -- sent the game into overtime.
Lack was injured on the game-winning goal by Athanasiou, his 18th of the season, as the center raced down the right wing on a partial breakaway before cutting in on the Carolina goaltender as he was checked from behind. Lack, who missed two major portions of the season with concussions, was attended to for more than 15 minutes as he was down on the ice as both teams and the crowd watched in silence. He was carried off the ice on a stretcher.
Detroit (31-32-12) improved to 5-1-1 in its last seven with the victory.
This was a makeup game from an originally scheduled Dec. 19 meeting between the two teams that was postponed because of poor ice conditions at PNC Arena. The Red Wings will remain in town and play the Hurricanes again Tuesday night, making it an unusual three games in three days for Detroit, which is in last place in the Atlantic Division and on the brink of missing the playoffs for the first time in a quarter century.
The Red Wings erased Carolina's 1-0 lead midway through the second period in a span of 1:10 as Anthony Mantha scored his 16th and 17th of the season on a pair of breakaways after two costly Carolina turnovers.
However, Faulk's 15th of the season with 57.5 seconds left in the period sent Carolina to the locker room tied 2-2.
Skinner extended his point streak to seven straight games when he scored 5:15 into the first period.
NOTES: Carolina LW Jeff Skinner has 15 points since March 5. Skinner's 174th goal tied Rod Brind'Amour for third on the all-time Hurricanes list.... Carolina has assigned RW Valentin Zykov, who has missed the last games with an upper body injury, to AHL Charlotte. ...Detroit D Niklas Kronwall sat out with a leg injury. ... Undrafted free agent D Daniel Renouf made his NHL debut for the Red Wings. ... Detroit C Luke Glendening went down in the first period with the lower body injury and did not return.