Kane, Red Wings hold off Hurricanes to gain in East wild-card race

DETROIT –- Patrick Kane scored his 20th goal of the season to help the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Little Caesars Arena on Friday.

It's the 17th season Kane has scored at least 20 goals, passing Mike Modano for the most by a United States-born player in NHL history.

“It’s a huge honor because he was one of my favorite players growing up,” the Buffalo native said. “He broke my heart in 1999, though, when Dallas beat the Sabres in the (Stanley Cup) Final.”

Alex DeBrincat had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Larkin had two assists for the Red Wings (35-33-7), who have earned a point in three straight games (2-0-1).

Detroit is four points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

“We’ll enjoy this win tonight, but if you look at our schedule, it doesn’t get any easier," Kane said. "Tomorrow, we’ll start getting ready for Florida on Sunday.”

Cam Talbot made 30 saves for Detroit, which blocked 25 shots.

“I don’t think a goaltender can beat that team alone, it has to be a team game,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “We made some mistakes and they made us pay, but we sold out, blocked shots, got some really good penalty killing and made some big saves.”

Jackson Blake, Eric Robinson and Brent Burns scored for Carolina (46-25-4), which had won three straight. Pyotr Kochetkov made 16 saves.

“We got behind early, but then we dug in and played a great game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We just had a couple bad turnovers in the second period.”

The Red Wings scored twice in 26 seconds in the first period, then got two goals in 21 seconds in the second period.

Ben Chiarot gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 9:03, one-timing a rebound from the left circle after DeBrincat hit the post.

Marco Kasper made it 2-0 at 9:29 when he tapped in a loose puck in the crease after Kochetkov stopped Lucas Raymond's initial shot.

“We really weren’t engaged enough,” Brind’Amour said. “We gave them two goals.”

Blake cut it to 2-1 at 1:57 after Seth Jarvis forced Justin Holl into a turnover. With the primary assist, Jarvis extended his point streak to six games (three goals, six assists).

Kane gave Detroit a 3-1 lead on a breakaway at 9:05, putting a wrist shot under Kochetkov’s blocker from the right circle.

Michael Rasmussen pushed it to 4-1 at 9:26, taking a pass from Tyler Motte at the edge of the crease and beating Kochetkov with a spinning backhand.

“Scoring two early favors us, and then we killed a penalty and got two more,” McLellan said. “Those four goals all gain momentum for us, but they weren’t going to go away.”

Carolina cut the deficit to 4-2 at 12:36 when Robinson’s tip of Justin Robidas’ shot deflected over Talbot before going in off his back and skate. Robidas, who was making his NHL debut, got the primary assist for his first career point.

Burns pulled the Hurricanes to within 4-3 at 12:44 of the third period, beating Talbot with a point shot that deflected off the stick of Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson.

However, DeBrincat scored into the empty net at 19:59 for the 5-3 final.

NOTES: Kane’s goal was his 100th point (40 goals, 60 assists) in 115 games with the Red Wings and his 39th point (15 goals, 24 assists) in his past 35 games. … Robidas had one shot in 8:14 of ice time in his debut.