The Florida Panthers could only muster up 21 shots and a single goal, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
After a scoreless first period, Mason Appleton opened the scoring 2:09 into the second. Jeff Petry lost his footing, and possession of the puck, to Dylan Larkin, who fed Appleton for a successful shot along the ice.
The Red Wings would dent Florida’s penalty kill for the first time this season to go up by two at the 9:36 mark. Larkin won an offensive zone draw back to Moritz Seider, who passed to Patrick Kane. Kane drifted to his right before unleashing a wrister that beat Sergei Bobrovsky with defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Niko Mikkola both serving time in the sin bin.
Florida would answer 4:29 later when Anton Lundell won a faceoff in the Detroit end to Brad Marchand and he went ldown the left boards before rounding the net and slipping the puck underneath Cam Talbot. Marchand has now lit the lamp in three-straight games.
The Panthers had 25:55 of game time left to come up with the equalizer, but they just couldn’t do it. They only tested Talbot eight times after Marchand’s tally, and the Red Wings finished the contest with 22 blocked shots.
As was the case in Philadelphia, the Cats gave up a pair of empty-netters late to turn a one-goal game into a three-goal margin.
Appleton notched his second of the night at 18:02, from Michael Rasmussen and Alex DeBrincat, and Rasmussen completed the scoring from DeBrincat with 18 ticks left on the clock.
We knew that without Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk the offense would likely suffer and that has certainly been the case with the Panthers away from the friendly confines of Amerant Bank Arena. They’ll need a better effort and to find a way to finish tonight against the New Jersey Devils to avoid falling to .500.
The Five Hole
- The Panthers only tally extended the point streaks of Brad Marchand and Anton Lundell to four games. The duo is tied for the club lead in scoring with five points. Marchand is the only Cat with three goals.
- Lundell appeared in his 300th NHL game and collected his 100th career assist. He logged 17:06 of ice time, registered two shots on goal and won 50% of his faceoffs.
- Sergei Bobrovsky continued to shine, despite taking his first loss of the season. He stopped 21 of 23 shots to keep his toothless team in the game until the Red Wings put it away with him sitting on the bench.
- Led by Eetu Luostarinen’s game-high five, the Panthers out-hit the Red Wings by a 32-14 margin.
- A quiet night for Mackie Samoskevich, who failed to register a shot on goal and was credited with just one hit in 14:46 TOI.
Stat Card
