The Panthers out played the competition in every aspect Saturday night. Their response in the first period carried over into the third where they put the beat down on the Detroit Red Wings winning 4-1 at the BB&T Center. Goaltender Roberto Luongo made 21 of 22 saves in net in a team effort to victory.
Detroit’s rough outing on the road required them to adjust fast going into just the second game of the season. Playing the Panthers wasn’t going to be any easier as they continued to carry a strong team that has shown serious competition in recent years. Jagr had a chance of reaching a milestone sitting on 749 career goals. Scoring his 750th goal would put him as the third player in NHL history to reach that feat.
With everyone in the NHL trying to get into the groove, the Red Wings had to consolidate their best to score goals. Tomas Vanek and Frans Nielsen proved themselves well and hoped to watch the rest of their teammates do the same to prevent going 0-2. Things didn’t go so well for Detroit as they were quickly down 1-0 just 1:10 into the start of the game. Vincent Trocheck took off with the puck going for a wraparound chance that hit the skate of Dylan Larkin and into the net for his first of the season and fifth in the last eight games playing the Red Wings.
The Panthers picked up a power play where they took things to Petr Mrazek where he made three stops on Florida with the Detroit PK unit in crisis mode. The Red Wings had yet to take a shot in the opening eight minutes of action. They took a shot on Luongo but watched Florida regain a grip on possession bring the heat back on the Detroit net minder. Florida’s tenacity was too much for the Red Wings as they took off setting up a 2 on 1. A beautiful pass from Jonathan Marchessault put Colton Sceviour in a great spot to fire the puck cleanly into the net.
By the halfway point, Florida outshot Detroit 9-3 as the game was becoming quite lopsided. Detroit needed more effort from their veterans and on their fourth shot, an answer arrived. Detroit played man to man coverage deep into the Florida zone before a stick on the puck gave Darren Helm the chance. He delivered a one timer in front of the goal that ended Luongo’s shutout. Detroit spent the remainder of the period trying to reel things in but couldn’t cover the spread with Florida outshooting Detroit 16-9.
The second period saw things slow down with Florida taking a calmer approach to their offense taking six shots through ten minutes of play. Detroit took just a pair on the Panthers net but more had to be done in order to level the playing field. Florida gained the only power play of the period but saw Detroit and Mrazek take care of business in their end holding off any further surge.
The shots to the net continued to increase for Florida who took the challenge to Mrazek but came up short against the Czech goaltender who made huge saves in the late stages of the second. The horn sounded with the Panthers leading 12-4 and with a majority of their second straight power play to be played in the third.
The Red Wings made a good response by killing off another penalty and running their way to getting back to level pegging with the Panthers. Detroit was pushing their lines to increase some energy on offense and got to a degree that matched the power of Florida’s. It remained a one-goal lead for the Panthers with five minutes left, but a critical power play for the Red Wings had Detroit searching for the tying goal.
The Panthers PK unit fought well in their zone slapping away the puck from the Red Wings that killed off the two-minute penalty. When the game returned to even strength it was a big move from Jagr that gave the Panthers another step in the right direction. His steal off of Danny DeKeyser allowed Aleksander Barkov a shot at the net scoring his first of the season for a 3-1 lead.
Detroit pulled Mrazek from the net hoping that it could make a difference with six attackers. It only got worse as Florida powered their way back into the Detroit end where Marchessault scored on the empty net to end the game.
Despite being 0-2, Mrazek had another good performance stopping 34 of 37 but his team allowed too many scoring chances with key players still underperforming. They’ll hope to get things in shape before Monday’s home opener at the Joe Louis Arena when the face the Ottawa Senators.
Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images
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