DETROIT — Dougie Hamilton and Nino Niederreiter scored, Alex Nedeljkovic made 25 saves and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Sunday night for their eighth consecutive victory.
Carolina moved into the Central Division lead at 20-6-1, a point ahead of idle Tampa Bay and Florida.
Anthony Mantha scored his eighth goal of the season for Detroit with just 9.4 seconds left in regulation, spoiling Nedeljkovic’s bid for his second career shutout.
Niederreiter gave the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead early in the third period, scoring off a pass from Sebastian Aho.
Hamilton opened the scoring with 4:47 left in the second period. Instead of passing to Hurricanes scoring leader Aho on a 2 on 1, Hamilton kept the puck and beat goalie Jonathan Bernier from the right circle. He has scored in consecutive games and has an eight-game points streak.
These teams will meet again Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena. The Hurricanes lead the season series 3-1.
ON THE MOVE
The Red Wings recalled forward Mathias Brome from the taxi squad. Hurricanes defenseman Jake Gardiner cleared waivers and was assigned to the taxi squad.
MILESTONE
Detroit forward Darren Helm played his 717th game, passing Brendan Shanahan for 18th in franchise history.
POINT PRODUCER
With his assist on Niederreiter’s goal, Aho took over sole possession of the team lead in points with 25 (10-15-25), moving ahead of Vincent Trocheck (13-11-24), who missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Aho has always scored well against Detroit, with 15 points (6-9-15) in 15 career games.
