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

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Red Wings knew this would be a difficult road trip, said it all along, and it's proving to be.

The Wings dropped their third consecutive game Thursday on this rugged trip — and there's two more to go before returning home — losing 4-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Carolina (46-21-7), which clinched its sixth consecutive playoff berth with the win, scored four times in the second period to take command and Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen stopped 24 shots for the shutout.

The Wings (36-30-7) received bad news before the game that forwards Patrick Kane and Austin Czarnik were unavailable because of illness. They went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen instead, bringing in forward Daniel Sprong and defenseman Justin Holl.

That was the first inkling this could be not the Wings' night, but things steamrolled from there.

And the thing is, this was an evening the Wings could have capitalized in this playoff race — if you can call it that.

Both Philadelphia (82 points) and Washington (81 points), just above the Wings (79) in the standings, both lost. So, in positive news, the Wings didn't lose any ground in the standings, though they only have nine games now left on the schedule (Washington, who holds the last wild-card spot, have one game in hand).

The Wings close out this trip with games Saturday in Florida and Monday in Tampa. The Wings have lost to Nashville, Washington and Carolina on this trip, all playoff teams as of currently, just as Florida and Tampa are.

The Wings have lost nine of their last 13 games (3-9-1).

After a first period in which the Wings were out-shot 15-3 — and it felt like that — Carolina took control on the scoreboard also, in the second period.

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."