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Red Wings rally to beat Hurricanes

Mar 25, 2012 - 3:27 AM Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - Jiri Hudler and Drew Miller each scored in the third period to cap a 5-4 comeback victory by the Detroit Red Wings over the Carolina Hurricanes at Joe Louis Arena.

Henrik Zetterberg added two goals while Todd Bertuzzi also scored for Detroit, which rallied from a 4-1 deficit and snapped a six-game losing streak. The Red Wings avoided dropping seven straight contests for the first time since Jan. 14-30, 1991.

Ty Conklin stopped 20-of-24 shots in the win, which kept the Red Wings in the fourth spot of the Western Conference with a one-point lead over the Nashville Predators, who also won on Saturday.

Jiri Tlusty had two goals for the Hurricanes, who dropped their second straight game. Chad LaRose and Jamie McBain also scored for Carolina, while Cam Ward made 45 saves.

"It's disappointing," LaRose said about the loss. "We didn't take care of our lead when we had the opportunity and it cost us."

Detroit trailed by one entering the third period after two late goals in the second period cut into a 4-1 deficit and was able to knot the game at the 8:10 mark when Brad Stuart's one-timer from the high slot first hit off the skates of Hudler before bouncing off the right skate of Carolina's Jay Harrison and dribbling across the goal line.

The Red Wings capped their comeback and earned their first lead of the contest with 8:25 remaining in the contest. After Carolina's Brandon Sutter pulled the puck behind him on a defensive zone faceoff, Cleary raced to the puck and tipped it towards the slot, where Miller caught up to it and backhanded a shot past the glove of Ward.

The Hurricanes were unable to net the game-tying goal down the stretch as they were held to just three shots in the final period.

"I thought we played good. I think everyone thought that we did good things," said Zetterberg. "We just kept going. We got to play 60 minutes and tonight we found a way to score more goals than them."

Carolina jump out to the lead just 17 seconds into the contest after Tlusty raced into the Red Wings' zone with Detroit's Ian White battling for a loose puck. Tlusty managed to get his stick on the disc first and his sweeping backhander from the right circle deflected off White's stick and snuck under the crossbar.

Detroit was rewarded consecutive power plays, including a brief, five second two-man advantage, near the midpoint of the first period, but were unable to light the lamp in the frame despite outshooting the Hurricanes by a mark of 16-10.

Then, just 26 seconds into the second period, Carolina added to its lead when Eric Staal grabbed the puck near the right boards and fed a pass to LaRose in the left circle, where he sent a quick wrister through the short side for a 2-0 advantage.

The Red Wings made it a one-goal game at the 5:10 mark of the second with Zetterberg's wrister from the right circle that deflected off the toe of Hurricanes defenseman Bryan Allen and slipped between the pads of Ward.

Detroit supplied almost constant pressure over the next eight-plus minutes trying for the equalizer, but Ward made several big saves in that span before the Hurricanes tallied two quick power play goals.

Carolina was awarded a 5-on-3 power play for 31 seconds with 4:53 left in the second when Cleary was whistled for hooking while Nicklas Lidstrom was already in the box for an interference penalty, and the Hurricanes took advantage with one second left on the two-man advantage on McBain's one-time blast from the top of the left circle into the top-right corner.

The Hurricanes made it a 4-1 game 17 seconds later on Tlusty's redirection in the slot.

But Detroit responded with Zetterberg's one-timer from the high slot with 3:02 remaining in the middle stanza that deflected into the net off Ward's mask and a Bertuzzi goal at the 17:16 mark when he batted a skipping left-point shot by Gustav Nyquist out of midair an into the twine to make it a 4-3 contest entering the third.

Game Notes

Lidstrom returned from an 11-game absence because of a bone bruise in his right ankle. The Red Wings also got back defenseman Jakub Kindl after missing eight contests with a strained oblique muscle...Detroit improved to 29-5-2 at home this season, while Carolina fell to 11-18-9 on the road...The Hurricanes have not won a regular season game in Detroit since November 14, 1989 when the team was still known as the Hartford Whalers.