A very close game got out of the hands of the Red Wings Thursday night. A surge from the Florida Panthers ended with Aleksander Barkov scoring in overtime to give his team a 2-1 victory at the Joe Louis Arena. It was the second game this season that they were able to defeat Detroit and another step ahead of them in the standings.
The Red Wings play the Panthers for the second time this season hoping to get the best of them in the final game of the current home stand. Florida comes in with a new coach behind the bench as their previous head coach was fired two games back. The Panthers last game ended in a 2-1 shootout against the Blackhawks in what was a tight game against a formidable opponent. Detroit got back to a better showing on the ice going 3-0-1 in their last four. Mrazek got back in net for the Red Wings hoping for another strong performance along with his team’s newfound run scoring power play goals.
They had a similar result early in the period with a great turnover occurring in the Florida zone. Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg got hold of the puck away from the Panther’s defenders going in on the Florida net delivering a backhander that gave him his fourth of the season. They picked up a power play shortly after, but the Panthers PK and goaltender Roberto Luongo did work on defense.
When the game returned to even strength, the teams got into a tug of war for control in the period. Florida was running big plays into the Red Wings zone with their best taking shots on Mrazek only to come up short. With five minutes left in the period, the Panthers looked to even things up with Vincent Trocheck scoring one to even things up. Detroit coach Jeff Blashill immediately challenged the call citing off-sides on the play. Video evidence showed that the Panthers were off-sides before the Trocheck goal leaving Detroit solely in the lead.
Two bad beats occurred for Detroit in the final three minutes of the period. The first arrived when Detroit gained a second try on the man advantage. A penalty from Tomas Vanek put the teams to 4 on 4 even strength. The second arrived on a shot from Jason Demers where his scoring chance hit the stick of Defenseman Danny DeKeyser that sent the puck high up leaving Mrazek no chance to react quickly for the save. Demers added his third of the season and the goal that leveled Florida with Detroit to end the first. They outshot the Red Wings 11-7 and saw them go down a man with Justin Abdelkader out with a lower body injury.
The man advantage for the Panthers ended quickly to start the second with Detroit attempting to gain back the lead quickly. A great shot for the Red Wings nearly got the best of Luongo but not enough to break the tie. The Panthers slowly began to move ahead of Detroit on shots to the net as they spent more time in the Detroit end also trying to gain the lead. Half the period was in the books with both sides fighting for possession but time with the puck was less than desired to get a good shot.
The Panthers used that to their advantage complete taking the reins of the pace on ice taking a massive lead on shots to the net. Though the score remained dead even, Florida conducted a large chunk of the second period outshooting the Red Wings 12-6. Detroit had to get up to the face of their Atlantic Division rivals or face a tough outing in the third.
It was still a fight for the go-ahead goal but neither team was finding the best chances to change up the score. Florida still had a stronger edge than Detroit but the defense from the Red Wings saved them from letting the game get away from them. Time quickly left the clock leaving two minutes left on the clock. The teams played 4 on 4 before the Panthers got to play the rest a man up on Detroit. Despite two attempts being blocked, Florida found themselves going into overtime with Detroit who has played in seven competitions that went the distance.
The Panthers nearly watched the Red Wings put the game away with another good show of teamwork from Anthony Mantha and the Detroit captain. Zetterberg put up a solid centering shot that nearly got over the shoulder of Luongo but his defense swatted the puck off its trajectory clearing the problem aside. It was seconds later that the Panthers got on their own show of force setting up Barkov with a one on one with Mrazek. Playing it like a shootout, the 21-year-old deked out the Red Wings net minder to end the game at 2:04 to capture the second point.
The loss for Detroit was a step back from their win on Tuesday. With the home stand concluded, Detroit sets up for a run back east facing the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment