Pulkkinen scores 2, Red Wings beat Hurricanes 4-3
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Teemu Pulkkinen scored two goals in the third period, lifting the Detroit Red Wings past the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Saturday night.
The Red Wings scored three goals in the third to erase a 2-1 deficit, with Pulkkinen tying it with 15:21 left and then adding the go-ahead goal with 13:24 remaining.
Henrik Zetterberg had an early goal and assisted on Justin Abdelkater's insurance goal with 3:35 to play.
Turns out they needed it, after Justin Faulk made it a one-goal game by scoring with 2.1 seconds left.
Nathan Gerbe and Victor Rask had goals for Carolina, which scored on consecutive shots in the final 5 minutes of the second.
Cam Ward made 15 saves for the Hurricanes while Petr Mrazek turned aside the first 32 shots he faced and finished with 43 saves.
Pulkkinen tied it at 2 after he slipped through the slot and crashed the net. Then, he outfought Carolina's John-Michael Liles in front of Ward and redirected Tomas Tatar's shot to put the Red Wings back up.
Abdelkater then made it 4-2 with his fourth goal in just over 24 hours. He opened his season with a hat trick in a 4-0 win over Toronto on Friday night.
Carolina, which finished with a 46-19 shots advantage, generated plenty of scoring chances - but just couldn't solve Mrazek until late in the second.
Rask finally broke through, batting in a rebound behind the Detroit goalie's back with 4:48 left in the second for the first goal of the season allowed by the Red Wings.
Gerbe then gave the Hurricanes their first lead of the season when he parked in front of the net, took a slick feed from Ryan Murphy as the defenseman charged down the boards and slipped the puck past Mrazek with 56.5 seconds left.
Zetterberg broke a scoreless tie at 8:27 of the second on just Detroit's sixth shot. He took a feed from Dylan Larkin, snaked around the end line and tucked the puck under Ward's right leg.
In what proved to be an early turning point, the Hurricanes had a 5-on-3 power play for 46 seconds and peppered Mrazek with seven rapid-fire shots.
He stopped them all - and, for that matter, everything he faced until the final minutes of the second.
NOTES: Two teenagers earned points: In addition to Detroit's 19-year-old Larkin, 18-year-old Carolina D Noah Hanifin picked up his first NHL point for assisting on Rask's goal. ... D Michal Jordan replaced injured D James Wisniewski in the Hurricanes' lineup. Wisniewski will miss six months after tearing a knee ligament in the opener. ... Carolina C Riley Nash skated just five shifts before exiting with an upper body injury and did not return.