Streaking Hurricanes host Red Wings (Feb 02, 2018)
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes are in such a groove that they even picked up a goal from a source that hadn't been tapped in their most-recent game.
That's when defenseman Brett Pesce scored for the first time in 43 outings this season.
So maybe things are starting to fall into place for Carolina going into Friday night's game against the Detroit Red Wings at PNC Arena.
"A lot of guys found a way to contribute," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said, referring to a 2-0 victory Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens -- Carolina's third straight. "When we needed them, one of them was there."
Pesce said his lack of goals had been weighing on him to some degree across the past month. He said it's mostly because he sees that most other players on the team have contributed on the scoresheet.
"It has been in the back of my mind, for sure," Pesce said.
It's becoming a critical time for many teams, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. He said his team realizes there's no time for lapses.
"You go through the month of January, there's a lot of starts and stops," Blashill said. "I think our guys are recognizing we're on the homestretch. It's a long year, sometimes you can let weeks and days slip by you and our guys are recognizing that you can't."
The Red Wings are coming off Wednesday night's 2-1 home shootout victory against San Jose, so there's a need for additional offense.
"I think our guys hopefully recognize that one way to lead to more offense is dirty goals," Blashill said. "We need more offense from our back end and an easy way to do that is to make sure we have a shooting mentality. We just have to get through to ourselves that we have to have a shooting mentality."
In the game with Detroit, the Hurricanes will try to match their season-best winning streak of four games.
Carolina goalie Cam Ward said it's clear that as the team makes progress in the Eastern Conference standings that things are going to be magnified.
"Every game is going to be tight down the stretch," he said. "The margin of error is so small right now."
Of course, with the recent success for the Hurricanes comes some complicated issues. Peters said he expected to use both goalies Ward and Scott Darling in the situation with games on back-to-back nights this week.
But Ward posted 27 saves in a shutout Thursday night, so the Hurricanes might rethink their plan. Ward also was in the nets for Tuesday night's victory against the Ottawa Senators.
"We'll digest (what happened Thursday) a little bit," Peters said, "and make sure we make a good decision."
Peters said the Hurricanes seem more comfortable in close games than perhaps previously in the season.
"I think we've grown," he said. "We've had some leads and had some scenarios we've been in ... and we were much more composed and mature in those situations (recently) and that's a very positive sign."
This will be Carolina's third contest in a season-long eight-game homestand.
Detroit, which went 2-1-0 in January road contests, will play six of its next eight games on the road, including Saturday night at Florida.
Carolina won 3-1 on Jan. 20 at Detroit. The teams meet again Feb. 24 in Detroit.
