Pavel Datsyuk (7, 8) scored a pair of goals, Petr Mrazek stopped 23 Panthers‘ shots, and Justin Abdelkader leveled Aleksander Barkov in a 3-0 shutout of the Florida Panthers in Detroit on Monday night.
Barkov played just under nine minutes before getting tattooed by Abdelkader in the second period. Eventually, Derek MacKenzie stepped up to drop the gloves with the offender, but much too late to light much of a fire under the Panthers. Barkov did not return.
Tomas Tatar (16) opened the scoring at the 4:19 mark in the final period. Henrik Zetterberg earned two assists on the night. Abdelkader, Brad Richards, Dylan Larkin and Jakub Kindl also collected helpers on the night.
Al Montoya stopped all 21 shots on goal by the Wings through the first two periods, but ended up giving up all three markers on 10 shots through the third for the loss, which drops him to 8-3-1 for the season.
Vote on tonight’s Panthers.
Florida is proving to be a streaky team. Since Thanksgiving, they’ve won five, lost three of four, won 12, lost four, won five, and now lost two in a row. They’ll look to buck the trend tomorrow night in Buffalo, when they take on the Sabres at 7PM. Check back here in the morning for the full recap, in the afternoon for the Caterwaul, and around 6:30 for the GameThread.