Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves to backstop the Florida Panthers to a 2-0 victory of the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena. Florida has now won ten straight over Detroit since the 2020-21 season.
The shutout was Bobrovsky’s first of the season. sixth as a Panther, and 39th overall, and came in his 650th career NHL game.
At the other end, former Cat James Reimer was no slouch either, stopping 25 of the 26 shots he faced.
The only goal to beat either keeper came with 52 ticks remaining in the second period and went to Steven Lorentz, his first as a Panther.
Lorentz took a pass from Niko Mikkola and skated over the blue line before letting go of a shot from the left circle that Reimer couldn’t handle. The puck bounced off of Reimer’s glove, the cross bar, his bum and both of his legs before crossing the goal line.
The Cats held the Red Wings to seven shots in the third period before Anton Lundell got off the schneid with an empty-netter from Matthew Tkachuk and Dmitry with 1:12 left in regulation.
Hats off to Bobrovsky, who has started eight of Florida’s first nine games and upped his save percentage to .913 and lowered his goals against average to 2.51. Except for Sam Reinhart, goals haven’t come easy for the Panthers thus far, but they sport a solid 5-3-1 record in large part due to Bobrovsky’s fine goaltending.
Florida’s special teams delivered a Jekyll and Hyde performance. The penalty kill was a perfect five for five, while the power play turned in another o-fer, failing to convert on five chances, generating just nine shots.
The Panthers have a chance to get five out of six possible points on the road trip when they face the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. This will be Florida’s first look at Connor Bedard.
Gears & Sprockets
- Aleksander Barkov played his 672nd game with the Panthers, passing Jonathan Huberdeau for the most in franchise history. Barkov registered four shots and won an impressive 85.7% (12 of 14) of his faceoffs.
- Matthew Tkachuk remained stuck on one goal despite putting five shots on goal. That number tied him for the game high with Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat
- The Red Wings are 0-for-17 on the power play in their past four games. They went 1-3 in those tilts.
- Dmitry Kulikov’s assist on the clincher was his sixth of the season, tying him with Barkov and Evan Rodrigues for the team lead.
- The Cats were only credited with nine hits. Three of them went to William Lockwood. Former Panther Ben Chiarot led Detroit with six.
- For the other side of the first of four, visit Winging It In Motown.