Carolina end skid, secure home ice, in win over Detroit Canes still need a win to take Metro crown

In Raleigh, the Hurricanes ended a three-game skid on Tuesday night in a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Antti Raanta made 20 saves in the win.

“For me, it was just one shot at a time,” he said. “I was just trying to get us over the line and trying to get the win. Obviously three games in a row, we lose all three. That hurts for sure. But we knew what we didn’t do right and we knew what we have to do to get those wins. Today we came out and we were ready to play.”

Carolina improved to 51-21-9, and clinched home ice in the first round of the playoffs.

“We got in a little bit of a rut there,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I didn’t dislike a lot of the games we played, it just didn’t go our way. Tonight it was kind of the opposite. We got the breaks and obviously got the win.”

Carolina took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal from Stefan Noesen

“I don’t know if I loved the first goal against, but it was the perfect storm,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “I thought he gave us a really good chance again. His ability to play the puck against a forechecking team is very valuable.”

Jordan Martinook pushed the advantage to 2-0 before the end of the first.

“I had seen there were five guys in front, so I wasn’t going to go in the muck,” Martinook said. “Usually [Skjei] is going high glove there, but he found me on the back side.”

Detroit dropped to 35-36-10 off their fourth straight loss.

“I think you’re learning about our core, which I’m excited about,” Lalonde said. “I just liked their compete [level] tonight. We’re not a very deep team to begin with. Dylan was unavailable for us, we were down 2-0, and I liked their push back against a team like that.”

Robert Hagg scored at 5:05 of the middle frame to trim the deficit to 2-1 for Detroit.

Brent Burns scored four minutes later to restore the two-goal lead at 3-1.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi added an empty-net goal in the final minute for the 4-1 final.

Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves in the loss.