Red Wings-Panthers quick take: Special teams help Wings grind out a 5-2 win over the defending champs

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to rebound from their loss to Seattle by taking on the powerhouse Florida Panthers on Thursday night in Sunrise, Florida. The Wings-Panthers tilt kicked off a stretch of 4 games to be played over the course of only 6 nights…

And on Thursday evening, the Red Wings were out-shot, arguably out-played at even strength, and Cam Talbot had to make 41 saves…

But Detroit scored 3 power play goals, and the Wings took 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads–all on power play goals by Jonatan Berggren, Dylan Larkin and Patrick Kane, respectively–before Marco Kasper and Dylan Larkin (ENG) scored to put the game away.

This was a story of resilience, strong defense, and “selling out” physically and in terms of grinding play in order to out-play the mighty Panthers.

In pregame warmups, the anticipated starters led their respective teams onto the ice at Amerant Bank Arena…

With the Red Wings posting their usual “out of the locker room, onto the ice” video…

The Panthers’ lineup remained the same from Tuesday’s shootout win over New Jersey…

And Florida listed its starters…

While the Red Wings posted their entire lineup:

The starters and scratches were as follows:

In the 1st period, the line of Tarasenko, Compher and Berggren started opposite Luostarinen, Bennett and Samoskevich, with Edvinsson and Johansson opposing MIkkola and Schmidt, and Cam Talbot starting opposite Sergei Bobrovsky.

The puck didn’t hit the ice at Amerant Bank Arena until 7:11 PM, and the ESPN crew spent a couple of minutes talking up the Panthers and talking down the Red Wings prior to puck drop.

Detroit tied up the opening faceoff, but the Panthers mucked it back to their D and chipped, chased, Samoskevich was stifled by Edvinsson, but he was hit hard and the Panthers began to cycle. Edvinsson helped move the puck to the blueline, but not out of the zone, and Florida cycled some more, with the Red Wings looking over-matched.

The Panthers’ D ripped a shot wide of the goal before Detroit was at least able to exit the blueline and change, but the Larkin line was held into the Wings’ zone for a moment, they pushed the puck into the Panthers’ end, and Detroit needed to re-set before changing some 2:00 into the 1st period.

Florida’s forecheck was intense and vicious, and Moritz Seider was the first to bump and grind right back, as did Chiarot…

And Carter Verhaeghe found himself in the slot and fired a shot off the goalpost, Talbot stopped the rebound, and Detroit looked very shaky to start the 3 minutes of the 1st period.

Justin Holl iced the puck at 3:10, and Veleno lost a draw, Mikkola hit a shot off Talbot, and Detroit’s Gustafsson was able to clear, but up came the Panthers again, chipping and chasing, with the shot attempts 7-0 Florida 3:40 into the 1st.

Berggren did steal the puck and try to shoot, but he was stopped, Florida dumped and chased, cycled, and Talbot made a good stop on a Panthers forward…

Again, the Panthers cycled deep, pinned the Red Wings to the boards, and cycled to their D, where they blasted pucks toward Talbot again and again.

4:31 into the 1st, Florida was dominant, and Holl was stung by a shoulder hit from Luostarinen.

As play continued, Larkin, Raymond and Seider at least got a shot off on Bobrovsky to flitter a backhand into “Bob’s” chest and earn a whistle in the Panthers’ zone at 4:55;

Gustafsson got a wrist shot through up high on Bobrovsky off the next faceoff win, but up came the Panthers again, and Bennett not only shot the puck toward the net, but he crashed into Ttalbot, who held his ground;

And Detroit was called for a penalty at 5:32, with Gustafsson pissed off as he exited the ice for interfering with Lusostarinen.

On the penalty-kill, Seider, Chariot, Compher and Rasmussen lost the initial faceoff, but chipped the puck down the ice with ease;

Reinhart, Tkachuk, Barkov, et. al. nearly scored when Barkov was fed back-door;

Schmidt and Verhaeghe worked the points, and Schmidt blasted a shot wide of the goal;

Rasmussen cleared the puck some 55 seconds in, and Detroit got a change;

Veleno, Compher, Holl and Edvinsson worked together vs. the Panthers’ second unit, and Detroit blocked a shot, chipped the puck down the ice, and Bobrovsky touched up to earn an even-up for the Red Wings as Holl was tripped by Rodrigues at 7:12.

On the 4-on-4, the Panthers just ragged the puck back and charged up the ice, with Barkov slithering the puck around the back boards to send it deep and keep it in the zone;

On the power play, Seider was unable to get through center, but Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin could shallowly enter the Panthers’ zone, the Wings had to regroup at center ice, and DeBrincat, Larkin, Kane, Seider and Gustafsson afforded the 2nd unit some ice time with about 45 seconds remaining on the PP.

Rasmussen, Tarasenko, Berggren, Compher and Gustafsson cycled, and JONATAN BERGGREN RIPPED A SHOT FROM THE LOW LEFT FACEOFF CIRCLE THAT BEAT BOBROVSKY GLOVE SIDE.

Berggren scored the 1-0 goal from Gustafsson and Tarasenko at 8:48, PPG.

Detroit was almost immediately pushed back into their defensive zone and south of center by the Panthers 5-on-5, and Edvinsson and Johansson struggled against the Tkachuk-Reinhart line, with Seider and Chiarot relieving them but not able to clear the zone…

Tarasenko managed to generate a 2-on-1 with Berggren, but the Panthers stifled that with ease, and Reinhart had to be stopped by Talbot on the counter-attack;

Raymond, Kasper and Larkin then battled Verhaeghe, Boqvist and Lundell, and Justin Holl got beat as Verhaeghe shot a puck on Talbot, and Lundell beat Holl to the rebound.

Lundell scored from Verhaeghe and Kulikov at 11:01, even strength, 1-1.

Detroit at least engaged with the Kane-DeBrincat-and-Compher line cycling hard down low in the Panthers’ zone, and the Panthers iced the puck at 12:05…

Detroit was pushing the puck into the Panthers’ zone at least, and the Wings’ sticks were alert at center ice, picking off the Panthers’ wind-up and-skate offense…

Joe Veleno nearly scored off a Chiarot rebound at 13:30, but that goal did not happen as Bobrovsky fought off the loose puck;

Compher, Berggren and Tarasenko then sold out to keep offensive zone pressure for as long as possible, and when the Panthers inevitably attacked, Holl made a smart clear;

Kane, DeBrincat and Copp had a hell of a cycling shift as the Wings’ “top line,” per Bob Wichusen, anyway, got some long defensive zone time, and the Larkin line followed it up with great zone time and strong defense from Chiarot and Kasper in the neutral zone;

And Talbot gobbled up a loose puck with his blocker hand with 3:31 left in the 1st.

The Panthers really tried to take their physicality to their advantage as the 1st period wound down, but of all people, Berggren was tremendous in terms of his defensive buy-in, and he got hit very, very hard by Balinskis after chipping a puck out of trouble…

But what should have been a penalty for a late hit was not called, so Berggren got bench taps as his reward for sticking his ass out and putting his body on the line.

There was this tribute to Vladimir Tarasenko’s time with the Panthers, too:

The Panthers were really dominating in terms of shot totals and zone time as the period wound down, but Detroit was “holding its own,” and while Ryan Callahan insisted that the Wings were the Titanic and the Panthers the iceberg, Raymond nearly broke free of 2 Panthers defenders off a fine pass from Larkin at the blueline.

The period ended with Seider firing a long shot into Bobrovsky’s glove with 2.3 seconds left in the frame, and Detroit winning the faceoff to Seider, who ripped a wrister wide.

In the 2nd period, Compher, Berggren and Tarasenko started opposite the Bennett line, the Panthers won another faceoff and chipped and chased, but Compher reversed, Tarasenko was bumped off the puck, and Edvinsson gloved the puck down, Tarasenko fed BERGGREN WHO HIT THE CROSSBAR…

Detroit regrouped, Edvinsson got hooked, and Florida would sit at 47 seconds as Tkachuk got called for hooking after dropping his stick.

On the power play, Florida actually cycled down the ice and Barkov and Reinhart got a 2-on-1 before Talbot made a stop and Detroit set up in the Panthers’ zone…

With Seider, DeBrincat, Raymond, Larkin and Kane grinding as best they could, with Raymond getting a one-timer off on Bobrovsky that was stopped…

The 2nd unit came out with 1:08 left in the PP, and Lundell battled Berggren, Compher and Gustafsson, who muddled the puck through center ice, Tarasenko was blocked off and Lundell cleared the zone;

So Detroit regrouped with 30 seconds left in the PP, Tarasenko chipped and chased, Gustafsson held the line, but the play was blown dead for Detroit touching the puck with a high stick…

The Wings’ first line returned to the ice for the final few seconds of the PP, and Larkin won a draw, Seider and Chiarot chipped, Chiarot held the line for a moment, but was blocked, and the Panthers raced up 3-on-3, Chiarot and Kasper could not connect, and Florida chipped and changed some 3:10 into the 2nd.

On a long shift, Kasper did a good job of steering Veleno and Fischer into the proper lanes to defend against Florida’s relentless attack;

As play continued, Gustafsson tried to send a point shot in on Bobrovsky with Copp screening the Panthers’ goaltender;

Even Justin Holl got a deflected shot to go off Bobrovsky’s toe;

Overall, Detroit’s puck movement was much better, and the Panthers were at least spending less time dekeing and dangling around the perimeter in the offensive zone.

Detroit was also winning actual faceoffs, which they did not do in the 1st period.

A bad Berggren turnover yielded a 3-on-2 for Florida and a one-timer in which Barkov fired the puck into Talbot’s gut;

When play resumed after a TV timeout, a loose puck kicked at by Larkin and Kasper rolled into Bobrovsky before Raymond could jab it into the net, affording Bob a cover-up at 6:39;

Off a board battle, Copp got a from-the-side-boards shot into Bobrovsky as well…

And the Panthers’ Nathan Schmidt would sit at 7:00 for hooking, affording Detroit its 3rd power play.

On the power play, the Wings’ first unit lost the initial draw, but DeBrincat and Kane bashed the end boards despite the Panthers clearing the puck, taking out the Panthers’ D for the most part…

Kane and Raymond and Larkin then skated up 3-on-2, unsuccessfully, and Lundell and Barkov went the other way, unsuccessfully.

Detroit established possession, DeBrincat fed Kane, Kane reversed the flow from right to left, and DYLAN LARKIN TAPPED THE PUCK HOME TO MAKE IT 2-1 on the POWER PLAY at 7:52 of the 2nd.

Larkin scored from Kane and DeBrincat at 7:52 to make it 2-1 Detroit. PPG.

The Panthers’ Samoskevich skated in with Rodrigues and he fired a shot over Talbot that Talbot would want back, however, at 8:21. Johansson and Fischer got tied up at the blueline, Edvinsson and Veleno lost Rodrigues, easy shot, easy goal.

Rodrigues made it 2-2 at 8:21 from Samoskevich.

On the next bump-up shift, the Wings did not go with the Veleno line this time, and Berggren, Tarasenko and Compher had a very short shift with Chiarot and Gustafsson working as an interim pair.

Seider did not leave the ice for long, however, as he worked with Chiarot some 9:30 into the 2nd, and they worked with a heavily-checked Larkin line to cycle well, even though Larkin could not hold the offensive blueline at 10:00…

Copp then got a great pass and raced in behind the Panthers’ defense, and he was STIFLED by Bobrovsky on the breakaway;

Talbot made some IMMENSE SAVES as the Florida Panthers’ forwards over-powered Johansson and Edvinsson, with Florida generating two tremendous chances to score goals…

But Edvinsson was tripped behind the net by Boqvist, and Boqvist sat at 11:58 of the 2nd period, for tripping.

On the power play, Larkin tied up the initial draw, but the Panthers whacked the puck down the ice;

Seider dropped for Larkin, through center he went to DeBrincat, to Seider, for Kane under pressure, Seider held for Larkin, deke away, shot for Raymond wide, Seider for DeBrincat, to Seider and back to DeBrincat, for Raymond down low, loses regains, Seider for Kane down off Larkin’s heel, DeBrincat for Raymond, Seider for Larkin to Kane, Larkin rt wing side, to Kane, lateral for DeBrincat blocked, DeBrincat around for Seider, Raymond rim for Larkin behind the net, Seider holds, Larkin cycles, 35 left PP, Kulikov blocked, Kane rt side, walks, walks, sticks behind the net, for Raymond left point, to Seider, for Raymond left point walks for Kane rt side GOAL.

Patrick Kane ripped the shot through Forsling and Bobrovsky to flutter top shelf at 13:44 of the 2nd. Detroit led 3-2 thanks to the goal from Raymond and Seider. PPG.

On the bump-up shift, the Wings went with Holl, Gustafsson and the Compher line, and Detroit at least battled the Panthers, but Talbot had to hug the post to stop Samoskevich, and the Wings iced the puck at 14:43.

Florida did not win the deep offensive zone faceoff, but their play was sharp and smart, and it took everything Detroit had to stifle the Panthers’ cycle in the offensive zone…

And Dylan Larkin battled Forsling, Larkin went back on sides at the offensive blueline, tagging up, and Kasper took the loose puck and rifled it over Bobrovsky’s blocker and made it 4-2 at 15:41.

The Panthers pulled Bobrovsky and the Wings’ goal was Kasper from Larkin at 15:41. 4-2.

Detroit was shooting and shooting some more, though there were wide attempts and blocked attempts, and Detroit led 9-6 in shots for the 2nd period.

Detroit needed to grind out a strong finish to the 2nd period, and that was difficult as the Panthers were receiving their new-goalie-wake-up-call, so players like Johansson and Edvinsson had to battle Barkov, Tkachuk and Reinhart, with the Compher line helping…

And a stupid penalty was called as Albert Johansson sat with 1:45 left in the 2nd for tripping Tkachuk.

On the PK, Detroit won the initial draw and cleared the puck down the ice…

But Bennett, Lundell and Rodrigues worked as the 2nd unit, cycling, getting two shots on Talbot, working with Balinskis and Samoskevich to generate pressure on the Wings’ goalie.

The Panthers put their top unit out for the final 57.1 seconds of 2nd period action, and Tkachuk, Reinhart, Barkov, Schmidt and Verhaeghe were stifled by Raymond, Larkin, Holl and Gustafsson;

The top unit stayed out opposite Veleno, Copp, Edvinsson and Seider, and Detroit was able to clear the zone long enough to end the 2nd period.

In the 3rd period, there was some apprehension as the Florida Panthers began the 3rd on the power play, but Larkin, Raymond, Seider and Chiarot won the initial faceoff, shadowed the Panthers into the zone, and Seider slapped the puck off Johansson and out as the Wings KILLED THE PENALTY.

Larkin, Kasper and Raymond got a good cycle going in the latter portion of their shift as well, but the Panthers’ disrupted it;

Detroit was retrieving pucks at the blueline and standing up to the Panthers’ forwards as best they could in both the neutral and defensive zones, and while the Wings were doing chip-and-not-chase hockey, it was mostly working.

Talbot made a good stop on Boqvist at one end some 1:45 in, and DeBrincat fed Kane for a deke-and-dangle that Balinskis and Knight were able to stifle because the puck rolled on Kane…

The puck was bouncing on the bad Amerant Bank Arena ice, but it’s nothing that Little Caesars Arena doesn’t see…

And of all people, Rodrigues and DeBrincat discussed fighting at 2:30, but the linesmen defused the fight and called both players for roughing, affording the teams a 4-on-4.

ON the 4 on 4, Seider, Raymond, Chiarot and Larkin worked the puck deep after defending a Panthers rush, Larkin sent a long shot off Knight’s blocker, and both teams changed;

Verhaeghe, Mikkola and Lundell worked vs. Johansson and Edvinsson, Tarasenko stifled a rim-around and Compher got a mini-breakaway that was stifled;

Seider also did a little ragging of the puck, but the Panthers were able to defuse the problem, and Veleno and Rasmussen watched Rodrigues get TWO tremendous opportunities, and Forsling skating off the bench to blast a 3rd shot into Talbot.

As play continued and the 4-on-4 expired, Detroit was doing its best to sacrifice the body in order to generate zone time away from Talbot, because the Panthers are tremendously tenacious in the offensive zone;

Johansson made a nice play to stifle Boqvist racing in toward Talbot with 5:51 gone, boxing out the Panthers’ bigger forward and then giving him a post-whistle cross-check for good measure;

Seider and Chiarot got caught out for a two-minute shift against the Wings’ 4th line with about 12:50 left in regulation, but they survived the exchange;

Ultimately, Detroit was doing a good job back-checking and forechecking, and by the first TV timeout, Florida looked a bit deflated.

When play resumed, Detroit iced the puck opposite the Barkov-Tkachuk line, and the Panthers won the draw and forced Talbot to make a big stop;

Florida did crawl its way back into the “momentum game” as the halfway point of the 3rd period loomed, with Sam Bennett dekeing the pants off of Justin Holl, but the Wings had better defensive support, and even Ryan Callahan would note that the Wings’ defensive and neutral zone play was marked by more puck support.

Again, Florida was starting to generate some momentum as the halfway point of the 3rd passed, so as Detroit began to ice the puck, ice the puck, and ice the puck some more with 9-and-fewer minutes left in the 3rd, that was a concern.

With 7:24 remaining in the 3rd, Talbot did a FINE job of digging through some crease chaos and traffic as Gustafsson and holl battled Luostarinen and Samoskevich to stifle shots against;

As you might expect, however, the Florida Panthers were given an “even-up penalty” with 6:39 remaining, with Raymond accidentally high-sticking Luostarinen in the head.

On the penalty-kill, Detroit won the initial draw, but Compher, Rasmussen, Seider and Chiarot worked together against an incredibly aggressive Florida power play that worked the perimeter, worked the puck down low, and Tkachuk clanged a shot off the outside of the goalpost;

Reinhart was stifled by Talbot in the slot;

Seider made a critical clear with about 55 seconds remaining in the PK;

Larkin cleared the zone with 33 left in the PK off a Panthers rim-around;

Talbot made a big stop on Lundell by leaning against the goalpost;

And the power play expired with a gorgeous block by Copp on Samoskevich.

As the Wings continued to play defense over the final 4 minutes of play, the Wings sure tried to stifle the Panthers’ offense at even strength, with coach McLellan watching the Panthers pull Spencer Knight at 16:40 of the 3rd.

On the 6-on-5, Schmidt was stifled on the point shot;

Seider, Chiarot, Kane, Copp and DeBrincat worked vs. Verhaeghe, Reinhart, Tkachuk, Barkov, Schmidt and Bennett, and they got caught out for a long shift…

But the Red Wings got lucky as a Panthers shot hit the inside of the goalpost with 2:20 left as Chiarot tipped a Reinhart shot behind his own goaltender;

Talbot made a tremendous stop on Talbot, who was simply pulled away from the net without a scrum by Chiarot;

Talbot held on with 1:35 left as the Wings gave the Compher line a shift because Compher had been winning faceoffs;

Then Larkin’s line worked with Gustafsson and Holl, Larkin won the defensive zone faceoff, Raymond took the rim and flicked it up to Kasper, Kasper lateralled it to Larkin and he raced in to chip the 5-2 goal in the empty net.

Larkin scored from Kasper and Raymond at 18:38. 5-2, empty-net.

The Panthers did not stop attacking after an octopus was thrown onto the ice, still attacking and forcing Talbot to make more big stops, and taking their pound of flesh physically as well…

Detroit killed off the final few seconds and won the game.

Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

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