Red Wings 3, Hurricanes 1

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The Carolina Hurricanes came out in their new menacing black uniforms for the first time, ready to tackle the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings on Monday night.

But there would be no comeback for a third straight game as the Canes fell behind yet again in the first period -- and despite 33 saves by Cam Ward – were on the short end of a 3-1 score.

The players and coach Peter Laviolette said the team just spent too much time in the penalty box, breaking up the substitution rhythm, to beat a club as talented as the Red Wings.

“This goes to show that we’re capable of playing with the defending Stanley Cup champions,” Ward said. “Everybody in this locker room would probably agree that this wasn’t our strongest game, so we’ll try to learn from this. We need to realize we’ve got to play a full 60 minutes and not just play in spurts.”   

“Detroit played a hard skating game and they have got great speed everywhere,” added Laviolette. “I don’t think we hit full stride tonight. A lot of that has to do with the way they play defense and taking away our time and space. We didn’t win enough of those battles from the circles on down. We needed to step on the gas a little bit more.”   

Carolina won’t see the RBC Center ice for a game until Nov. 1, embarking on a six-game road trip that includes two games on the West Coast.

“I do think there can be team building, and getting out and away from here could be good,” Laviolette said. “That many in a row on the road could be difficult, but you can use it to your advantage as well, trying to build some momentum before coming home.”

The Canes could muster little momentum on this night, getting just a lone goal by Joe Corvo 56 seconds into the second period after scoring a combined 10 goals in the first two games, losing for the first time this season.

Carolina skated with Detroit for the most part and put some serious pressure on Ty Conklin in net, but the second period was filled with too many penalties in succession, appearing to put the Canes on their heels for the rest of the night.

“It takes us out of the flow; it seemed like we didn’t have any even-strength shifts the whole period,” said Rod Brind’Amour. “Guys are just sitting there and you just never get any kind of rhythm going. Their power play is just too good to give them that many chances.”

Carolina surrendered a second power-play goal five minutes into the second and trailed 2-1 before Tim Gleason went to the box for cross-checking and an additional two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. Gleason’s four-minute penalty occurred just 17 seconds after the Canes killed off a Ray Whitney slashing call.

But the tired penalty killers, led by Eric Staal, Brandon Sutter and Brind’Amour, allowed just three Detroit shots and no real good scoring opportunities to get the crowd back into the game.

Carolina had 13 shots in the final period, but Detroit kept the pressure on, hitting two posts before finally sealing it with an empty-net goal with 15 seconds left.

The Canes allowed four goals in 13 shorthanded chances coming in and gave up another one less than seven minutes in as Ward was screened on a 40-footer from Nicklas Lidstrom. It was the third straight game to start the season that Carolina had allowed the opponent to score first.  

Carolina had a chance to dent Detroit’s 1-0 lead late in the first, but a two-man advantage was short-lived when Brind’Amour took a holding penalty 28 seconds into the 5-on-3.

“We came out with a better stride in the second period and started to generate some chances but then you’ve got guys sitting for six minutes,” Laviolette said. “We’ve been taking lazy penalties for the first three games. These hooking and holding penalties have to stop because they are going to kill us.”

NOTES: Defensemen Anton Babchuk and Josef Melichar were healthy scratches for the third straight game. … Corvo has eight goals in 26 games for Carolina since being traded from Ottawa. … Sergei Samsonov took a shot off his leg in the third period and limped off, but returned later in the period. … Staal and Joni Pitkanen each played more than 26 minutes. … Brandon Sutter had a tough night in the face-off circle, losing nine of 10 draws.