DETROIT — Patrick Kane added to a long list of career achievements during Friday’s 5-3 victory over Carolina.

Kane’s second-period goal gave the Wings a 3-1 lead and was his 20th goal of the season. That gave Kane 17 20-goal seasons in his career, passing Westland’s Mike Modano (16 seasons) for most among U.S.-born skaters. Kane is tied with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby among current players, while both trail Alex Ovechkin, who has 20 20-goal seasons.

The all-time leader? Gordie Howe, with 22.

But catching Modano, who finished his Hall of Fame career with one season on the Wings after a legendary career in Dallas, was an honor for Kane.

“He was one of my favorite players, to be honest with you,” Kane said. “I remember him a lot, just the way he skated up and down the ice, his jersey flapping behind him. He was one of the best American players of all time, so (there’s) a lot of respect for him and what he’s done in this league.

“And obviously he broke my heart in ‘99 when they beat the (Buffalo) Sabres in the Cup finals,” said Kane, who was a youngster growing up in Buffalo. “But definitely watching him growing up and how fun he was as a player, so explosive. He scored so many highlight-reel goals.”

Kane (at 36 years and 136 days) also became the oldest Wings’ player to score 20 goals in a season, passing Pavel Datsyuk (36 years, 218 days).

As coach Todd McLellan was walking to Friday’s post-game media conference, he was informed of all of Kane’s Friday accomplishments by media relations director Todd Beam.

“The walk wasn’t long enough to get through everything, which is remarkable,” McClellan said. “It’s an honor to be around him and watch him play and perform. He’s still like a young kid.”

Friday’s victory kept the Wings near the playoff chase, with Sunday’s home game against Florida (5:30 p.m./TNT/97.1) the next crucial game on the Wings’ schedule. There are only seven games left for the Wings, who need to continue to win and home the three teams close to them (Montreal, New York Rangers, Columbus) slip.

“You look at our schedule the rest of the way, it doesn’t really get any easier,” Kane said. “We can play against these top teams in the league, we proved that (Friday).”

‘Story isn’t done yet’

McLellan asked his team after the Four-Nations Tournament break whether they were more like the team that struggled up until the Christmas break, or the one that got on track after McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde as head coach.

The Wings have shown enough consistency since McLellan came aboard to believe they are closer to the post-Christmas team. But there’s plenty to play for in these final two weeks, with an opportunity to end an eight-year playoff drought for the organization.

The Wings were in a similar position late last season and missed the playoffs on the final night of the season on a tiebreaker. Did they learn from the experience to help them this time around?

“We’re going to find out,” McLellan said. “We talked about how the story isn’t done yet. We can still write another chapter, so let’s get playing the way we can. Don’t worry about standings or scores or anything like that. Last year’s experience with this group, I’m sure it helps. It can’t hurt. The belief system should be ‘we’ve been through this before, let’s keep pushing.’

“We’ll see what happens (Sunday) after Florida.”

Talbot starting again

Goaltender Cam Talbot will get his fourth consecutive start in net Sunday. McLellan wouldn’t speculate as to how he’d plan on using Talbot, or Alex Lyon, or Petr Mrazek (recovering from injury) next week, with a game Tuesday in Montreal, and a back-to-back in Florida and Tampa (Thursday/Friday).

The Wings need to be careful in not overusing Talbot, 37, with such a compact and pressure-packed schedule in the final seven games, and two weeks.

But Talbot loves the workload.

“I’m always kind of like that, I’ll play any game they tell me to play,” Talbot said. “I just try to keep myself in as good a shape as possible and just be ready anytime I get the call. This time of year is when you want to be playing and have the team and the coaching staff to have confidence in you.

“It’s not something I take lightly, and I prepare myself accordingly.”

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jack Roslovic had a goal and an assist and the Carolina Hurricanes won their sixth game in a row, 4-2 over the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on Friday night.

Taylor Hall and Jalen Chatfield also scored for Carolina before Eric Robinson’s empty-net goal with 1:11 remaining. Jesperi Kotkaniemi had two assists and Frederik Andersen made 24 saves.

Alex DeBrincat and Michael Rasmussen scored for the Red Wings, who’ve lost seven of their last eight games. Petr Mrazek, in his second game since last week’s arrival in a trade from Chicago, made 28 saves against one of his former teams.

Trailing 1-0 after the first period, Hall scored 22 seconds into the second period as Carolina scored three goals in 12 minutes.

Takeaways

Red Wings: DeBrincat has scored 14 goals in 24 career games against the Hurricanes, but Detroit again could not generate enough offense. The Red Wings have scored more than two goals only once in their last six games.

Hurricanes: Three of the team’s goals came from players who weren’t with the team last season, helping Carolina complete a 4-0 homestand. It was the sixth game in a row that the Hurricanes haven’t allowed more than two goals.

Key moment

Hall got the Hurricanes moving with his third goal in 16 games since joining the team in a trade from Chicago. He has 11 goals this season.

Key stat

The Hurricanes scored the only three goals of the second period, pushing their season-long scoring edge in second periods to 75-52.

Up Next

The Hurricanes begin a four-game road stretch on Saturday night at Philadelphia. The Red Wings are home Sunday against Vegas.

— By BOB SUTTON, Asssociated Press

DETROIT — This wasn’t the way the Red Wings had this weekend beginning.

Thursday’s opener to the two-game set with Columbus, capped by Saturday’s outdoor game at Ohio Stadium, means plenty for playoff positioning and the standings for both teams. To this point in the schedule, it’s the two most important games of the season.

Round one went to the Blue Jackets, who turned a big second period into a 5-2 victory.

The win moved the Jackets (29-22-8) into a tie with the Wings (30-23-6) with 66 points, occupying the two wild-card spots. The teams play again Saturday at Ohio Stadium (6 p.m./ESPN/97.1).

Alex DeBrincat and J.T. Compher (power play) had the Wings’ goals.

James van Riemsdyk had two Blue Jackets goals, Sean Kuraly and Kent Johnson had goals, with Kirill Marchenko adding an empty-net goal with just under a minute left to clinch the victory.

Marchenko dove to nudge the puck past defenseman Moritz Seider, Marchenko’s 24th goal, giving the Jackets a 5-2 lead.

Nobody was downplaying the significance of these two games after Thursday’s morning skate.

“Sometimes you don’t want to hype yourself up too much, but these are big games for us,” forward Patrick Kane said. “We’re in a situation where Columbus is below us in the standings, and we’re trying to create some separation.”

After a scoreless first period, Columbus scored four second-period goals taking a 4-2 lead into the final period.

DeBrincat opened the scoring with his 27th goal, just 27 seconds into the second period. Compher found DeBrincat open near the low circle and DeBrincat one-timed a shot past goalie Danil Tarasov.

But Columbus roared back with four consecutive goals.

van Riemsdyk scored the first of his two, deflecting Jake Christiansen’s shot from the point past Talbot at 4:16.

Kuraly broke the tie with his fifth goal, at 9:43. Kuraly drove to the net and batted down a puck to the side of the net, before knocking the puck past Talbot, giving Columbus a 3-1 lead.

Johnson, the former Michigan star, extended the lead to 3-1. Johnson got his stick on Dante Fabbro’s shot and redirected the shot past Talbot for his 20th goal at 12:08.

The Jackets weren’t done. van Riemsdyk scored his second, and 14th of the season, snapping Boone Jenner’s pass from in front of the net at 15:01.

Compher stopped the onslaught with his seventh goal, on the power play. Jonatan Berggren found Compher alone between the hashmarks and Compher cut the lead to 4-2 at 16:32.

The Wings stressed the importance of these two games after Thursday’s morning skate. The hoopla of Saturday’s outdoor game and the attention focused on these two teams who weren’t considered playoff contenders heading into even January, made it doubly vital to focus on the task of concentrating on the hockey.

“You can either take a big step in the standings here in these next two games or lose one,” DeBrincat said after the morning skate. “We have to come out hard. Obviously, first one at home is important and we can move on from there.”

Coach Todd McLellan added Saturday’s event makes it doubly interesting, but the games and points available are of the most importance.

“The games are very meaningful,” McLellan said. “Outdoor just adds a lot more drama to it. But on Sunday when we all wake up, the actual hockey part of it – the points and what comes out of it – will be the most important.”

By DANA GAURUDER
The Associated Press

DETROIT — Patrick Kane scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway with a minute left in overtime and the Detroit Red Wings beat Anaheim 5-4 on Sunday night to end the Ducks’ four-game winning streak.

Marco Kasper, Alex DeBrincat and Kane scored during the first 5:06 of the game, the fastest any team has scored three goals this season. J.T. Compher added a power-play goal for Detroit, which squandered a late two-goal lead and improved to 8-1-1 in its last 10 games. Alex Lyon made 24 saves.

The Red Wings bounced back from a 4-3 overtime loss to Minnesota on Saturday in which they gave away a two-goal lead in the third period.

Anaheim scored twice in the final 2:16 after pulling goaltender Lukas Dostal for an extra skater.

Cutter Gauthier scored twice, including the tying goal with 53 seconds left. Ryan Strome and Owen Zellweger also scored for the Ducks. Dostal made 31 saves.

Takeaways

Ducks: Anaheim had allowed just six goals during its four-game streak. The Ducks gave up more than four goals for the first time in 14 games.

Red Wings: Detroit converted on three of four power plays. Their power play, ranked second in the league, has produced 50 goals. Only Winnipeg (51) has scored more with the man advantage.

Key moment

Anaheim’s Isac Lundestrom and Brian Dumoulin were sent to the penalty box at 4:21 of the first after committing tripping penalties. DeBrincat converted during the 5-on-3 advantage, knocking in a rebound of a Dylan Larkin shot. Kane scored from the high slot during the subsequent 5-on-4 advantage, giving Detroit a 3-0 lead.

Key stat

DeBrincat has regularly produced against the Ducks during his career. He has 15 goals and 28 points in 18 games.

Up next

Both teams play Tuesday. The Ducks visit Buffalo, and the Red Wings are at Minnesota.

BOSTON (AP) — The first matchup between the United States and Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off left both sides — and most hockey fans, too — wanting more.

And that’s just what they’ll get.

The North Americans played their way into a rematch in the championship game, even with the United States losing 2-1 to Sweden in the round-robin finale on Monday. The U.S. team had already clinched a spot in the title game, and Canada earned its way there by beating Finland 5-3 earlier Monday to finish the group stage.

“It will be a hard fought battle. That’s what I would anticipate,” U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said. “I feel like I get the best seat in the house, being behind the bench and being up close to it. To watch what these guys do on the ice at the pace that they’re able to do it, sometimes we just marvel at what goes on up there.”

Sweden rallied after falling behind just 35 seconds into the game to hand the Americans their first loss in the tournament that brought the game’s greatest players back to the international stage after sitting out the last two Olympics.

Canada watched its four-goal lead cut to one in the final minutes but pulled out a victory over Finland earlier Monday to grab the other spot in the title game. That clinched the rematch of the fight-filled round-robin matchup from Saturday.

“They’re gonna be extremely hungry. They don’t want to lose two to us,” American forward Dylan Larkin said. “I think there’ll be some nerves, but I hope it’s that level that it was in Montreal.”

Chris Kreider gave the Americans the lead in the opening minute on Monday night, but Gustav Nyquist tied it a dozen minutes later and Jesper Bratt gave Sweden the lead with less than a minute remaining in the first period. Samuel Ersson made 31 saves, shutting the U.S. down for the game’s last 59:25.

Officially, the nightcap meant nothing to either the Americans or Swedes: The U.S. had already clinched a spot in Thursday night’s championship game, and Sweden needed the Canadians to falter for a chance in the final.

“I don’t think there was too much of a shock,” U.S. forward Jack Hughes said. “They’re obviously a great team and I know they’re champing at the bit to get us again. We’re really excited that we get them, and that’s kind of what we were looking for.”

With some fans wearing powdered wigs and colonial-era tricorn hats, the Boston crowd bellowed “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the game — a response to the Canadians who booed the U.S. national anthem before the early matchups in Montreal. Chants of “U-S-A!” rang out through the TD Garden in the final minutes, with goalie Jake Oettinger pulled for an extra skater, but the Americans couldn’t beat Ersson to force overtime.

Instead, the Americans will regroup for the tournament final.

“The first game was such a great hockey game. And I think it’s great for hockey that there’s an opportunity for these two teams to meet again,” Sullivan said. “Obviously, both teams have star power all around the lineup. It was a very competitive hockey game, the first game. I would anticipate the next one will be every bit as competitive, if not more.”

The Americans faced Sweden a player down with Auston Matthews out, and then Brady Tkachuk left in the second period after colliding with Ersson in the crease. More disappointing for the Boston fans was Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy being scratched from the lineup.

Sullivan said the team had not moved to bring in roster reinforcements.

“We’re hoping to get some of these guys back,” he said.

— By JIMMY GOLEN, Associated Press