The Red Wings headed into Carolina tonight to take on a desperate Hurricanes team battling for their playoff lives. Carolina has been on fire recently posting a record of 7-0-3 in their last 10 games and look to continue winning against the visiting Red Wings.

In a fairly typical fashion, the Red Wings came out rather sluggish to begin the game and struggled to create very much offensively throughout the 1st half of the period. Carolina got on the board first on a deflection goal scored by Jeff Skinner to extend his current scoring streak to six games with a whopping eight tallies.

It has been a trend in many games for the Red Wings this season to allow a goal from far out off an unlucky bounce and you can see the disgust in Petr Mrazek’s face here after the puck goes in.

Darren Helm had a chance to even the score with a breakaway later in the period but was unable to beat Eddie Lack on the blocker side shot. The Wings began to push a bit more offensively towards the end of the period but could not get on the scoreboard and finished the period being out shot CAR 12 to DET 6.

The second period began very similar to the first with Carolina carrying the play offensively and getting an early power play opportunity that looked extremely dangerous but Mrazek was able to hold strong and keep the Wings only trailing by one. The Red Wings tonight had 22-year old Daniel Renouf making his NHL debut and he made his physical presence felt in this game part way through the 2nd period by delivering a big hit in the neutral zone.

Around the midway point of the period Anthony Mantha decided he had seen enough of his team trailing on the scoreboard and began to take over the game. He started off by bursting through the Carolina defense from center ice to get in alone on a breakaway and snipe a beauty shot past Lack.

Less than a minute later Mantha was at it again receiving a pass on the tape from Andreas Athanasiou to take it in all alone once again and execute a perfect fake shot to freeze Lack and slide it backhand between the five-hole.

Despite Mantha’s effort to get the Red Wings motivated they continued to be outplayed towards the tail end of the 2nd period and with just under a minute remaining Justin Faulk danced around youngster Dylan Larkin and ripped a shot past Mrazek to tie the game. Larkin’s sophomore season continues to be a struggle and these plays are absolutely necessary to stop for a team that wants to be a playoff contender.

The period ended in a 2-2 tie with the shots at CAR 29 to DET 15.

The third period began with a power play opportunity for the Red Wings which had a few threatening scoring chances but they were unable to convert. The game went back and forth for a several consecutive shifts before Carolina took an obvious interference penalty on Justin Abdelkader and the Wings went to work on their second power play chance of the period.

Tomas Tatar continued his torrid scoring streak by notching a beauty power play goal off a great feed by Gustav Nyquist giving the Red Wings a 3-2 lead. Tatar now has eight goals and 11 points in his last 10 games and looks to be trying to justify a raise this off-season going into RFA status.

At the midway point of the 3rd period Skinner got a chance all alone in the slot but Mrazek came up huge to hold the lead for the Red Wings.

Justin Faulk was determined not to let his team fall out of the playoff conversation and with the goalie pulled and less than a minute remaining he scored a perfect wrist shot from the point through traffic and picked the corner glove side on Mrazek.

For the fourth straight game the Red Wings head to OT with the regulation shots finishing at CAR 40 to DET 25.

The game was ended exactly the same as yesterday with a streaking Anthanasiou coming in all alone and completing a beautiful finish to secure the victory for the Red Wings.

The goal was not all positive however as AA was pushed into Lack by the back checking Victor Rask and came into hard contact to the head of goalie who needed to be taken off on a stretcher. The goal was reviewed and deemed to be a good goal but all the players main concern was for the well-being of the goaltender who was receiving significant attention to make sure if the neck and head areas were seriously injured that they would be taken care of properly.

Your final score ends at Red Wings 4 Hurricances 3 with the shot totals at DET 27 to CAR 42.

Anthony Mantha was a huge difference maker for the Wings with two goals in less than minute to turn things around after Carolina had been putting heavy pressure on the Wings in the first half of the game.

The Red Wings will cap-off a strange back-to-back-to-back with another game tomorrow night in Carolina. Brock Seguin will have your GameDay Preview!