RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Alex Nedeljkovic had 46 saves in a sharp performance against his former team, helping the Detroit Red Wings beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 on Thursday night.
Moritz Seider, Adam Erne and Filip Zadina scored for Detroit. The Red Wings were recently eliminated from the postseason chase for the sixth straight year, but managed to push past the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes despite being outplayed much of the way.
Nedeljkovic had a strong run for the Hurricanes last season but the team traded him to Detroit in July and opted to reshape their goaltender position by bringing in Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen.
Nedeljkovic had his third shutout of the season.
Carolina finished with a 46-22 edge in shots on goal, including a long stretch of the second period played in the Detroit end of the ice. But Nedeljkovic tood up against every swarming push or breakaway by Carolina, keeping the game scoreless until a trailing Seider took a feed from Dylan Larkin and beat Raanta at 19:47 of the second period.
Erne pushed the lead to 2-0 when he got a step inside of Tony DeAngelo to a loose rebound and extended his stick to push the puck around Raanta at 3:01 of the third. Zadina's all but sealed the game at 13:33, marking a missed opportunity for a Carolina team that entered leading the idle New York Rangers by two points for the division lead.
Raanta finished with 19 saves for Carolina.
BETTER SHOWING
This marked the third time Nedeljkovic had faced the Hurricanes for the Red Wings. He lost the first in December but earned an overtime win in March.
The 26-year-old netminder — who won 15 games with a 1.90 goals-against average and .932 save percentage for Carolina last year — had surrendered seven goals on 62 shots in the two meetings this year.
KOTKANIEMI'S RETURN
Carolina center Jesperi Kotkaniemi returned after missing eight games with a lower-body injury.
Kotkaniemi saw 15:20 of ice time.
REPAIR WORK
The game paused for several minutes during one second-period stoppage early in the period for arena staff to work on improving the ice surface along the boards near the right faceoff circle.
UP NEXT
Red Wings: At the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Hurricanes: At Colorado on Saturday night.
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