Aho, Ferland help Hurricanes end skid with win against Red Wings

DETROIT -- Sebastian Aho extended his season-opening point streak to nine and Micheal Ferland scored for the fourth straight game to help the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Monday.

Defenseman Justin Faulk and forward Jordan Martinook scored for the Hurricanes (5-3-1), who had lost three straight after winning five of their first six.
"There was no doubt who was the better team tonight," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "I liked our game tonight and I've liked it all year."
WATCH: [All Hurricanes vs. Red Wings highlights]
Goalie Petr Mrazek made 20 saves in his second start against his former team. Mrazek, who played his first 166 NHL games with Detroit, was traded to Philadelphia on Feb. 19 and pulled in the second period of a 5-4 shootout loss to the Red Wings on March 20.
"It always feels a lot better when you win," Mrazek said. "I'm really happy today."
Forward Andreas Athanasiou scored for the Red Wings (1-6-2) and goalie Jimmy Howard made 36 saves, including 20 in the first period.
"Carolina has been doing that to teams all year, creating a lot of shots and a lot of chances," Howard said. "We took some good steps forward in the last couple games, but that didn't carry over tonight."
The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead on Faulk's power-play goal at 18:25 of the first period. Ferland made it 2-0 with another power-play goal at 8:05 of the second.

Aho had an assist on Ferland's goal and became the second player in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history to have at least one point in each of the first nine games to begin a season. Ron Francis had an 11-game point streak for the Whalers at the start of the 1984-85 season.
Carolina entered with the NHL's worst power play, having scored twice in 30 opportunities. But the Hurricanes went 2-for-3 and killed four Red Wings power plays.

"If you look at the box score at the end of the night, you will see that the team that takes care of special teams wins the games," Faulk said. "Both our penalty kill and power play have been brutal to start the season, but they were huge tonight."
The Red Wings were outshot 36-12 in the first two periods.
"That was 100 percent inexcusable," coach Jeff Blashill said. "When you oversleep, it takes you a long time to get moving, and it took us two periods to get going."
The Hurricanes held a 14-0 advantage in shots on goal before Red Wings defenseman Dennis Cholowski forced Mrazek to make a pad save at 13:31 of the first period. Mrazek also made a save against Justin Abdelkader on a breakaway at 15:34.
"It's one of the hardest things, not seeing a shot and then facing a 2-on-1 and a breakaway," Mrazek said. "I was trying to go behind the net and play the puck just to feel like a part of the game."
Athanasiou scored at 12:02 of the third period when he redirected Thomas Vanek's feed past Mrazek to make it 2-1.

The Red Wings nearly tied the game on the power play with 4:45 remaining, but Faulk blocked Athanasiou's shot on the goal line and Michael Rasmussen couldn't score on the rebound.
"I thought it was a tie game," Athanasiou said. "I was looking at an empty net, but Faulk got across and somehow got his arm on the shot."
Faulk felt his save made up for a mistake that created the frantic defensive effort.
"I got beat and Petr had to make a huge save on (Frans) Nielsen," he said. "After that, it was full scramble mode with everyone diving around."
Martinook's shorthanded empty-net goal gave the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead at 19:16.

They said it

"I didn't need to say anything to Petr about tonight. I knew this was a special night for him, and it was great to see him play the way he did." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on goalie Petr Mrazek
Video: CAR@DET: Mrazek, Faulk combine to stop the puck
"You have to earn everything you get in this league, and we aren't doing that. We could have snuck out of here with a point or two because of (Howard), but that would have been absolute robbery." -- Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall

Need to know

Faulk's goal gave him 228 points with the Hurricanes, passing Glen Wesley for second among defensemen in Hurricanes/Whalers history. Dave Babych is the all-time leader with 244. … Ferland leads the Hurricanes with six goals in nine games. … The Red Wings' start through nine games is their worst since they started the 1985-86 season with eight losses and a tie.

What's next

Hurricanes: Host the San Jose Sharks on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-CR, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Red Wings: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN3, FS-D, NHL.TV)