#LGRW Final: Red Wings can't hold lead, fall to Hurricanes, 5-2

DETROIT -- Filip Zadina had a pair of goals and the power play cashed in for the fourth straight game, but the Detroit Red Wings were unable to hold the lead on Thursday, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2, at PNC Arena.

Detroit (7-16-5) had a 2-1 lead late in the second period before Carolina (16-6-1) rattled off three unanswered goals in 4:05 of game time across the end of the second period and start of the third period.
Despite the three unanswered goals, coach Jeff Blashill felt the Red Wings played good enough to win against a Hurricanes club that now sits atop the division standings.
"I thought we played really, really good overall to be honest," Blashill said. "(The Hurricanes) pushed there in the third, they had good momentum from that goal in the second there and they obviously pushed early in the third and that's unfortunate. But yeah, your next shift, you've got to build back momentum and I think we've done a fairly good job of that. But I think our guys played hard tonight."

Zadina's two-goal night was his second career multi-goal game - the first of which came on Jan. 22, 2020 at Minnesota. Blashill said he's been pleased with Zadina's game, both offensively and defensively, and was happy to see him get rewarded.
"When you're a guy who scores, confidence is a critical thing," Blashill said. "For those pucks to go in is important for him. Both were really good goals. Hopefully he can continue to build on that."
Zadina's second of the game came on the power play, marking the fourth consecutive game the Red Wings have scored on the man advantage, matching the longest stretch for the team since March 31 - April 6, 2019.

In the first all-time meeting between the Svechnikov brothers, Red Wings forward Evgeny Svechnikov recorded an assist, while Carolina forward Andrei Svechnikov tallied a power-play goal and an assist.
Coupled with the Staal brothers squaring off, Thursday's game marked the first time in six seasons that two sets of brothers have played against each other in an NHL game, dating back to Oct. 24, 2015 (Arizona: Zbynek Michalek and Michael Stone; Ottawa: Milan Michalek and Mark Stone).
Just under five minutes into the first period, Zadina had a golden opportunity to open the scoring when the Red Wings forward broke free on a breakaway, but his shot was turned aside by Carolina goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.
Zadina didn't miss on his next opportunity, firing a snap shot past Nedeljkovic from the right face- off circle to give Detroit a 1-0 lead at 10:54. Vladislav Namestnikov and Sam Gagner collected assists on the goal.

However, only 21 seconds after claiming the lead, Andrei Svechnikov tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal at 11:15. The goal was Carolina's sixth power-play tally in its last four games.
Detroit took a 2-1 lead thanks to Zadina's second goal on the power play at 7:35 of the second period. Zadina's marker was his fourth point (2-2-4) in three games against the Hurricanes this season.
"I felt really good," Zadina said. "I was skating a lot, I felt fresh and scored a couple goals, which I'm really, really glad for it. I didn't score for a long time and now this."
Carolina tied the game late in the second period courtesy of a wrist shot through traffic from Martin Necas, sending the two teams into the second intermission deadlocked at 2-2.
The Hurricanes picked up right where they left off in the third period, as Jordan Staal gave Carolina a 3-2 lead only 45 seconds into the final frame.
Jesper Fast extended Carolina's lead to 4-2 only 1:05 later when Andrei Svechnikov found him open at the back door for a tap-in goal. Nino Niederreiter tacked on an empty-net goal at 14:55 to secure the fourth straight win for the Hurricanes to improve to 7-1-1 on home ice this season.
"They have a really good team, offensively and defensively," Zadina said. "We were sloppy the first couple minutes (of the third period) and that cost us the whole game."
Detroit will look to even the season series (1-2-0) against Carolina when the teams open a two-game series at Little Caesars Arena on March 14.
The Red Wings return home for four straight practice days before welcoming the Tampa Bay Lightning to Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. (Fox Sports Detroit, 97.1 The Ticket).