Recap: Canes Prevail Over Red Wings

DETROIT - Led by their specialty teams, the Carolina Hurricanes got back in the win column with a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
Justin Faulk and Micheal Ferland scored power-play goals, while the penalty kill came up big in the third period with two kills and a shorthanded goal for the Hurricanes en route to snapping their three-game losing skid.
"They earned the win. They did things right. There was no doubt who the better team was, and that's the way we have to play," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "You're not always going to get the bounces, but if we stick to the process of how we're playing, I think good results will be there."
Here are five takeaways from tonight's game in the Motor City.

One
Both the Hurricanes' power play and penalty kill ranked last in the league coming in to tonight's game.
Go figure, then, that both would be the reason the Hurricanes walked out of Detroit with their fifth win of the season.
"We've been saying it all along: special teams are very important in every game," Faulk said. "To be honest, it's been quite brutal to start the year, both the power play and penalty kill, and both were huge tonight."
"That's why we won the game. We won the special teams battle," Jaccob Slavin said. "I think it's been a long time coming for both of those to break through, so it was nice not to give one up on the PK and score a couple on the power play."
Two
A power-play goal, you say? How about two?
In just two periods' time, the Hurricanes doubled their output on the power play from the first eight games of the season.
Late in the first period, Justin Williams laid a puck off for Faulk at the point, and he bombed one through traffic in front and past Jimmy Howard to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, the Canes went tic-tac-toe on the man advantage to take a 2-0 lead. Sebastian Aho fed the puck down low to Valentin Zykov. Tic. Zykov one-touched it to Ferland. Tac. Ferland beat Howard glove side. Toe.
"It's nice just to get it going. It's been a pretty sore spot throughout the year so far," Faulk said. "We just need to keep it going. We're obviously happy it was that way tonight, but we're not satisfied, knowing that one game is not enough. We need to turn around and do it again Friday."

Three
That first power-play goal was timely, too, an exclamation point on what was an absolutely dominant first period for the Hurricanes.
"I think the boys were probably more happy that it was a power play, just to kind of get the monkey off our back," Faulk said. "We came out strong in the first."
The Canes recorded 14 shots on goal before the Red Wings notched their first with 6:30 left in the period. Amid a chorus of mocking cheers from the antsy home crowd, the shot came off the stick of Dennis Cholowski, as he weaved into the zone, and Petr Mrazek responded with a sharp right pad stop. An equally rousing cheer echoed throughout Little Caesars Arena when a dump-in beyond the red line trickled in on Mrazek - shot No. 2 for the Wings.

Mrazek had to be on his game, too, despite not facing much action. Justin Abdelkader snuck behind the Canes defense and was in alone, but Mrazek kept his paddle flush to the ice, his fourth save in what was then a scoreless contest.
The period ended with a 21-6 shot advantage for the Hurricanes, the goal a tangible reward for having near total control of the game for the first 20 minutes.

That dominance continued in the second period, and in the third, the Hurricanes were able to clamp down and seal the victory, their third on the road this season.
"Hard to believe in that game we didn't score 5-on-5. It felt like in the first two periods we were doing everything we wanted to do," Brind'Amour said. "The difference tonight versus the other nights was we did get a power-play goal. That set the stage for us to get this win."
"I think the guys were excited to get going tonight. Three-game skid, we wanted to cut that off. We had to get back in the win column. That's what we did," Slavin said. "The guys worked hard and dominated play all around."
Four
While the power play shone brightest in the first 40 minutes, the penalty kill took center stage in the third period.
After Andreas Athanasiou scored on a 2-on-1 rush to draw the Red Wings within a shot of tying the game, the Canes killed off two penalties in the last six minutes of regulation.
On the first kill, a mad scramble somehow prevented the score from being equalized. The sequence began with Mrazek pushing across the crease to make a pad save on Frans Nielsen. Athanasiou located the rebound and attempted to bang it home, but Faulk dove into the blue paint to make a right leg save. Then, Michael Rasmussen's third attempt was blocked by the combination of Faulk and Mrazek before a merciful whistle blew the play dead.

"We put ourselves in a tough spot. I got beat, and Petr made a huge save on the backdoor on Nielsen. Then, full scramble mode. Everyone's diving around. Maybe you don't always see that in game nine … but we're in a position where we lost three in a row," Faulk said. "Losing four wasn't really an option in this room, so we had to make sure we stepped up and did what we had to do."
"Everyone was jumping in front of those shots. That's big to see," Slavin said. "I think that's why we won the game."
Then, with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, the Canes faced a 6-on-4 man disadvantage with Dougie Hamilton in the box for delay of game and Howard on the bench for Detroit's extra skater. On the kill, Slavin morphed into a one-man wrecking crew, pushing two Red Wings off the puck before dangling around the third and carrying the puck up the ice. He settled the puck and fed Jordan Martinook with a backhand pass, and Martinook deposited the puck into the empty net. Game.

"We needed it. We had some real good kills tonight," Brind'Amour said. "What a play by Slavin at the end of the game to just take it over. It was a good win for us tonight."
Mrazek finished the night with 20 saves on 21 shots, earning a feel-good W against his old team.
"He made a couple huge saves at the right times," Brind'Amour said. "I knew this was a special game for him. It was great to see him have the game he did."
Five
On the second power-play goal, a pair of individual streaks were extended. Aho stretched his season-opening point streak to nine games (4g, 10a), the second-longest point streak to start a season in franchise history behind only Ron Francis' 11-game streak in 1984-85. Additionally, Ferland extended his goal streak to four games and leads the team with six through nine games.
Backtracking to the first goal, as well: With his power-play goal, Faulk surpassed Glen Wesley for second-most points by a defenseman in franchise history (228), with only Dave Babych in front of him (240).
Up Next
Another three-day gap separates the Canes from their next game, as they host the San Jose Sharks on Friday to open a three-game homestand.