Red Wings' playoff hopes sputter again, blown away by Hurricanes, 4-0

Sebastian Aho opened the scoring, his 32nd goal, converting a pass through the slot from Jake Guentzel off the rush at 4 minutes, 42 seconds.

Just 57 seconds later, the Hurricanes pushed the lead to 2-0 on a Seth Jarvis goal (his 28th). Aho worked the puck into the zone, through the Wings, and found Jarvis on the wing who beat Reimer from the hashmarks.

Carolina extended the lead to 3-0 at 10:46 on Martin Necas' 23rd goal. Evgeny Kuznetsov, like Guentzel acquired at the trade deadline, found Necas sneaking from around the net and fed Necas for a one-timer.

The Hurricanes completed the second-period barrage with Brady Skjei's 13th goal, at 16:23. Skjei drove a shot off the endboard, got the rebound, and snapped a shot that dribbled through and past Reimer.

The victory completed a three-game season sweep for the Hurricanes over the Wings. Carolina outshot the Wings, 33-24.

"Everything to them is north (up the ice), simple, predictable and they put everything on that," coach Derek Lalonde said. "This time of year the shot volume is real. It's so hard to get to the hard areas and you have to break it down and get pucks to the net. We can do a little more of that. You have to win your battles."

Lalonde has talked about how much being in this playoff race will help the Wings. But to qualify for them, the Wings need to start winning games.

"The reality is you can't look ahead," Lalonde said. "If you want to keep staying in this battle you have to find a way to win these types of games. Whoever does wind up above the (playoff) line wins these types of games."

The Wings are relishing the chance to play in these games, but realize the importance of getting into the win column.

"There's not a lot of games left and not a lot of spots to get into where we want to be," forward Lucas Raymond said. "We have to start playing playoff hockey and we have been doing so for quite a while now. Everyone in this locker room knows what we are chasing and knows what we are going for."