Hurricanes end season with 2-0 loss to Red Wings

imageRALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes ended their season suffering a 2-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at PNC Arena on Saturday.

Landon Ferraro and Joakim Andersson scored for Detroit while goaltender Petr Mrazek earned his third shutout of the season, making 35 saves to win his first game since Mar. 28.

Hurricanes netminder Cam Ward made 28 saves in the losing effort which remained a one-goal contest until the dying minutes.

While Carolina outshot Detroit, it once again experienced problems scoring goals – a season-long inhibitor to success.

“Yeah, didn’t score,” Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters said.

“Obviously no chance to win if you don’t score, so that’s part of it we’ve got to fix.

Ferraro scored his first career NHL goal just 48 seconds following the opening faceoff on a wraparound to Ward’s left post.

Ward and Mrazek coming up with impressive stops to keep it interesting for the rest of the game.

Detroit held onto its one-goal advantage until the 17:40 mark of the third, when Andersson turned the puck over deep in the Carolina zone with Ward out of the goal for the extra skater.

The empty-net goal finalized the win for the Red Wings, and emphatically ended the Hurricanes’ season on a losing note.

“Plenty of chances – probably better chances than they had to be honest,” Hurricanes defenseman Ron Hainsey said.

“But, it you don’t get it in, it’s tough to win.”

Finishing the season with a 30-41-11 record and 12 points back of the previous season’s finish, Peters and general manager Ron Francis will begin the review process immediately in preparation for next year.

“We’ll dig into it and look at it here as we go along and try to figure out what went wrong,” Peters said.

“Obviously, everyone’s got some ideas and some theories. We’ll dig into it and try to come up with a way to fix it in the summer. We’ve got some work to do.”

While Carolina finished its season in front of 16,680 at home, Francis was scouting a game in Manitoba according to Peters.

The coach plans to watch the team’s AHL club, the Charlotte Checkers, play on Sunday and will rendezvous with the GM in the Queen City for the drive back to Raleigh.

“He’s flyin’ in and I’m gonna’ give him a ride home,” Peters said.

“That will be a captive audience for two-and-a-half hours – that’ll be real good.”

Boxscore: Detroit 2, Carolina 0