Hurricanes top Red Wings for 8th straight, take Central lead

<p>DETROIT &mdash; 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.</p>
<p>Carolina moved into the Central Division lead at 20-6-1, a point ahead of idle Tampa Bay and Florida.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Niederreiter gave the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead early in the third period, scoring off a pass from Sebastian Aho.</p>
<p>Hamilton opened the scoring with 4:47 left in the second period. Instead of passing to Hurrucanes 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.</p>
<p>These teams will meet again Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena. The Hurricanes lead the season series 3-1.</p>
<p>ON THE MOVE</p>
<p>The Red Wings recalled forward Mathias Brome from the taxi squad. Hurricanes defenseman Jake Gardiner cleared waivers and was assigned to the taxi squad.</p>
<p>MILESTONE </p>
<p>Detroit forward Darren Helm played his 717th game, passing Brendan Shanahan for 18th in franchise history.</p>
<p>POINT PRODUCER</p>
<p>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.</p>