RALEIGH, N.C. – In a Saturday night tilt that featured the Eastern Conference’s top two clubs coming out of the NHL’s three-day holiday break, the Detroit Red Wings struggled to get their game going and dropped a 5-2 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center.
“They really overwhelmed us for two periods,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “We found our legs a little bit in the third, but they’re a tough team to come back against. We didn’t do much with the first 40, and not enough at the end.”
Unfortunately seeing his personal eight-game winning streak come to an end, netminder John Gibson finished with 33 saves for Detroit (22-14-3; 47 points). As for goalie Brandon Bussi, the 27-year-old rookie made 18 saves to help Carolina (23-11-3; 49 points) snap a three-game winless skid.
“It’s hard to win a game if you make the same mistakes over and over again,” Moritz Seider said. “I think that summarizes the game pretty well. Other than that, I think the third is something we can build off.”
Gibson made save after save in the first period, denying all 16 shots the Hurricanes sent his way – 11 of those were high-danger chances per NaturalStatTrick.com — to help the Red Wings carry a 1-0 advantage into the first intermission.
When Alexander Nikishin bobbled Sean Walker’s pass deep in the Hurricanes’ zone, J.T. Compher stole the puck and spun himself around before finding Rasmussen in the slot, where the 26-year-old forward beat Bussi with a wrist shot at 12:39 for his fifth goal of the season.
“The best player on the ice wore the funny-looking pads in goal,” McLellan said when asked to assess his club’s opening-frame performance. “Gibby was excellent. We did hit a post early and then Ras scored, but other than that we didn’t generate a lot. We couldn’t keep anything alive in their end. When they got to ours, we expended too much energy just chasing them around.”