Hornqvist, Verhaeghe each get their 5th goal to lead the Panthers
Patric Hornqvist, Aaron Ekblad and Carter Verhaeghe scored and the Florida Panthers held off the Detroit Red Wings for a 3-2 win Sunday night.
Anthony Mantha scored with 1:48 remaining to pull the Red Wings within a goal after Detroit pulled Thomas Greiss to add an extra skater. Detroit pulled its goaltender again, but couldn’t get another shot past Chris Driedger to extend the game.
Hornqvist pulled Florida into a 1-all tie on a power play early in the second. Ekblad took advantage of having an extra skater, with Hornqvist providing a distracting screen, when his one-timer from the top of the left circle got past Greiss’ glove with 4:56 left in the second period.
Verhaeghe gave the Panthers a two-goal lead midway through the third, and they ended up needing the cushion when Detroit made a late charge.
Driedger finished with 32 saves for the Panthers, whose only loss this season was in a shootout.
Hornqvist and Verhaeghe moved into the NHL’s top-10 in goal-scoring and joined Dallas’ Joe Pavelski as the only players with five goals scored with their teams having played as few as a half-dozen games.
Greiss stopped 27 shots for the Red Wings, who have dropped six
straight.
Dylan Larkin scored to put the Red Wings ahead early in the game with a backhander after skating in front of Driedger on a goal set up by a short, slick pass from Givani Smith. Earlier in the day, Smith was recalled from the taxi squad because forward Tyler Bertuzzi is out indefinitely with an upperbody injury.
Both teams failed to take advantage of two power plays in the opening period as Detroit outshot Florida 13-6. The Panthers outshot the Red Wings 17-9 in the second period as they took control.
On Saturday night, Florida defeated Detroit 3-2 in overtime when Aleksi Heponiemi scored 2:15 into the extra period in his NHL debut.
OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS
Florida is 5-0-1, losing in a shootout Thursday night at Columbus, and its 11 points are a club record after six games, and its six-game, season-opening point streak is the second longest in franchise history. The 1996-97 team opened the season with a 12-game point streak. That 1996-97 team had 10 points after six games.
Detroit has lost six in a row after a 2-2 start, which briefly generated some optimism about a team that was easily the NHL’s worst last season.
SCORING PUNCH
Larkin’s goal gave him six points in seven games. He has provided desperately needed scoring for an offensively challenged team that was without Bertuzzi, who leads the team with five goals.
HELPERS
Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau and Keith Yandle each had an assist on Ekblad’s and Hornqvist’s goals.
PANDEMIC PLAY
The Red Wings were without Adam Erne, Robby Fabbri, Sam Gagner, Jon Merrill and Filip Zadina due to the NHL’s COVID19 protocols, while Florida didn’t have anyone on the league’s list.
UP NEXT
Florida returns home for a relative break before hosting Nashville on Thursday night, the start of a six-game, 10-day homestand that also includes games against Detroit and Tampa Bay.