In Raleigh, Alex Nedeljkovic made 46 saves and the Detroit Red Wings shut out the Hurricanes, 3-0, on Thursday night.
“Any time you can get a shutout in this League it’s always special, so maybe tonight it was a little bit more,” Nedeljkovic said.
After a scoreless first period, Moritz Seider, put Detroit up 1-0. The goal came with 13 left in the middle frame.
“I think there’s a lot of areas where he could continue to get better,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said of Seider. “One of the areas is, if [he] can become an elite power-play guy. Running a power play is different than being an elite power-play guy. He’s got offense for sure. I just think it’s the overall game that ultimately will separate him.”
Detroit moved to 29-35-10.
“I thought our guys battled hard,” Blashill said. “We didn’t do everything perfect, obviously. ‘Ned’ was outstanding. And good for him, by the way. I know this one meant a lot to him.”
Adam Erne and Filip Zadina scored for the Red Wings in the third period.
The loss dropped Carolina to 48-19-8, and they failed to pad their slim lead in the Metropolitan Division.
“We want to finish first,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s what we set out to do for these 82 games. We still want to accomplish that. It made it a little tough for tonight, but that’s still what we’re trying to do.”
Carolina leads the New York Rangers by two points and are now even in games played.
“It is frustrating,” Carolina’s Sebastian Aho said. “Those scoring chances, you’re supposed to score enough goals to win a hockey game. Ned played really well. No reason to panic. But, learn from these and be a little bit sharper when we get those chances.”
Antti Raanta made 19 saves in the Canes loss.
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