Red Wings Beat Carolina 4-2; Hronek gets First Goal of Season

The Detroit Red Wings benefitted from some outstanding individual efforts in the game. After being muzzled by a strong Carolina defense Sunday night, the Red Wings and ended up the victors in a 4-2 win, snapping Carolina’s eight-game winning streak.

Adam Erne scored two goals while Dylan Larkin went coast to coast and left a drop pass for a waiting Robby Fabbri who buried the game winning goal for Detroit.

Carolina opened the scoring but Erne tied it with his fourth goal of the season. Erne notched his second of the game, again on the power play, which gave Detroit a 2-1 lead. After Carolina knotted it again, Larkin dazzled with his end-to-end play that gave Fabbri his sixth goal of the season.

Detroit sealed the game late when Filip Hronek flipped the puck into an empty net from his own goal line, notching his first goal of the season and the Red Wings victory.

Red Wings Goals

3 Other Thoughts:

• Erne’s confidence has been rising through the season and what appeared like maybe another lackluster season has morphed into a beauty. Erne suddenly has five goals and is carving out a spot for himself beyond this season. The role player expectations that Yzerman was targeting when he acquired him may very well be blooming.
• The chemistry between Larkin and Fabbri is something to behold. Fabbri should have had a second goal on another beautiful feed from Larkin, but Carolina’s Brock McGinn made a fantastic kick save to bail out James Reimer, who didn’t have a chance of saving it. Say what you will about the Mantha-Larkin-Bertuzzi line when the latter eventually returns, but Larkin and Fabbri have been a blast to watch. The Captain also shows just how much he influences the Wings success.
• I know it’s a rebuild. I know they need a high pick. But hockey is just so much more enjoyable when they win games and they’re scoring more than a goal or two each contest. In the last four years, I haven’t moved much during games, expecting losses and understanding it’s part of the process. But it was fun watching Larkin go coast to coast. Harkened back to the Pavel Datsyuk, or Sergei Fedorov where them just corralling the puck in their own zone with a burst of speed got everyone in the building to stand.