Nino Niederreiter scored twice, including a tiebreaking goal 18 seconds into the third period, as the roster-strapped Carolina Hurricanes beat the visiting Detroit Red Wings 5-3 on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Carolina played with just 16 skaters because of COVID-19 protocols.
Tony DeAngelo and Jack Drury, who made his NHL debut, also scored for the Hurricanes before Vincent Trocheck’s empty-net goal. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Teuvo Teravainen and Martin Necas all had two assists.
Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen made 23 saves.
Sam Gagner, Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the Red Wings. Alex Nedeljkovic, playing for the first time against his former team, stopped 28 shots for Detroit.
Drury became the 23rd player in franchise history to score a goal in his debut. He joined his father, Ted Drury, as the third father-son duo to play for the organization. Ted Drury played for the Hartford Whalers in 1994-95.
Carolina’s top two scorers, Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, are sidelined by COVID-19 along with captain Jordan Staal, Ian Cole, Seth Jarvis and Steven Lorentz. A scheduled game at Minnesota was called off Tuesday night, but the NHL gave the Hurricanes an emergency exception to allow them to get to 16 skaters (rather than 18).
They supplemented the roster with three additions from their Chicago affiliate of the American Hockey League. Andrew Poturalski, who assisted on the first goal in his third NHL game (and first since April 2017), and Stefan Noesen joined Drury as the call-ups.
The Hurricanes also had DeAngelo and Brett Pesce back on the ice after a seven-game absence for both related to COVID-19.
The Red Wings haven’t escaped COVID-19 either, with Robby Fabbri and Michael Rasmussen missing a game for the first time this season as they entered the protocol.
Niederreiter scored 2:05 into the game on a power play.
Gagner responded for the Blackhawks with an assisted goal about 3 1/2 minutes later.
DeAngelo put Carolina back ahead before Larkin’s breakaway, so there were four goals registered in the first 14 minutes.
Bertuzzi scored on a wrap-around with 8:41 left in the second period.
–Field Level Media