Red Wings win first road game as member of East
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Detroit Red Wings dominated the game but had little to show for it -- until they rallied for the win.
Stephen Weiss scored at 3:13 of overtime and the Red Wings came back from two goals down in the third period to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 on Friday night.
Henrik Zetterberg tied it with a goal with 16.4 seconds left in the third, after Justin Abdelkader started the rally by scoring in the first minute of the period.
"Got one early, got one late and were able to get one in overtime," Weiss said.
Jimmy Howard stopped 23 shots for the Red Wings -- who never led until Weiss' game-ending goal despite outshooting Carolina 38-25 and earning a victory in their first road game since moving to the Eastern Conference.
"We liked our first period. ... We just said, 'Stay patient and stick with the plan,'" Weiss said. "We needed to get one early (in the third), which we did, and that was huge."
Radek Dvorak and Nathan Gerbe scored in their debuts with Carolina, which led 2-0 in the third, but lost its opener for the fourth time in five seasons.
Justin Faulk added two assists and Cam Ward made 35 saves for the Hurricanes.
"Effort-wise, I thought everyone came hard tonight to play," Carolina coach Kirk Muller said. "We pushed. Detroit forces you to skate. We said before the game, `We can't have a letup, guys. They're not going to stop."
They certainly didn't.
Zetterberg sent it into overtime when he pushed a loose puck past Ward after a scramble in front of the net. Ward lost his stick while stopping a shot from Daniel Alfredsson a moment earlier.
"Obviously, that's the way you want to go into overtime," Zetterberg said. "You want to be the team that ties the game up."
Weiss -- a perennial nemesis for Carolina who spent 11 seasons with former Southeast Division rival Florida before signing with Detroit in the offseason -- then ended it when he stuffed a loose puck past Ward.
"I followed up and it squirted out to me, and I was able to get a stick on it," Weiss said.
Zetterberg also had an assist for the unbeaten Red Wings, who couldn't get anything past Ward until Abdelkader finally solved him 42 seconds into the third.
"We knew we wanted to try to get that first one to get things going," Abdelkader said. "I think after we got that, we started getting some more chances, we really came on and obviously, that was a huge goal at the end."
Detroit shifted from the Western Conference to the East as part of the NHL's realignment, which also moved the Hurricanes into the new Metropolitan Division. The Southeast was dissolved.
Dvorak and Gerbe were two of five players skating for the first time in Carolina red.
Dvorak, a veteran forward who came to Carolina's preseason camp on a tryout basis, earned a one-year contract Wednesday while Gerbe signed a one-year free-agent deal in late July after playing parts of the past five seasons with Buffalo.
Dvorak put the Hurricanes up 1-0 with 6:30 left in the first, chipping Jeff Skinner's long cross-ice pass over Howard's shoulder.
Gerbe then struck with 1:49 left in the second, in the final seconds of a holding penalty on Brendan Smith. Gerbe positioned himself near the net, scooped up a deflected shot and whipped it past Howard to put Carolina up 2-0.
"There was no panic in the room," Weiss said.
Game notes
Carolina RW Alexander Semin and Detroit's Zetterberg each rang the post. ... Faulk wore an "A" on his sweater because regular alternate captain, D Tim Gleason, was out with a concussion. ... This was the first meeting between the teams since March 24, 2012. They play twice more this season.