Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Panthers lose, 3-0
Red Wings too much for Florida in Detroit.
DETROIT — The last time the Panthers put together a substantial winning streak they lost four in a row. Uh-oh. Two days after the Panthers endured an uncharacteristic third-period collapse in an overtime loss to the Penguins which ended a five-game winning streak, they dropped their second straight in a chippy 3-0 loss Monday to the Detroit Red Wings in venerable Joe Louis Arena.
It snapped a string of five wins in a row in the Joe and ended the Panthers’ six-game point streak (5-0-1). The loss gave the Red Wings some life in the Atlantic Division as they now trail the first-place Panthers by six points instead of 10.
Far more significantly, the Panthers may have lost the services of blossoming star center Aleksander Barkov who left the game early in the second period with a possible concussion.
At 6:45 of a scoreless second period, Red Wings pesky forward Justin Abdelkader issued a vicious blindside shoulder to Barkov’s head. Defenseman Alex Petrovic came to his fallen teammate’s defense with a cross-check and was given two minutes, while the referee inexplicably didn’t penalize Abdelkader, who just four days earlier enticed mild-mannered Jonathan Huberdeau into a fight during Florida’s 6-3 win.
Abdelkader leads the Red Wings with 59
penalty minutes, while Barkov, who had a fourgame goal streak ended prematurely, has a teamlow six penalty minutes (among regulars). Barkov staggered off the ice and didn’t return after playing just 8:58. It’s assumed he underwent the protocol for concussions, but the official word from the Panthers is he sustained an upper-body injury. Abdelkader can expect a call from the NHL Department of Player Safety. Panthers center Derek MacKenzie fought Abdelkader in the closing moments but certainly didn’t get the best of him.
Barkov, 20, had 17 points over his last 17 games and tied his career high with his 16th goal in Saturday’s loss to Pittsburgh. Thirdline center Nick Bjugstad double-shifted and took Barkov’s place on the top line with Huberdeau and Jaromir Jagr, who became the 10th player in NHL history to play his 1,600th game.
Knotted at 0-0 after 40 minutes, Tomas Tatar deflected a rolling puck off a shot from defenseman Jakub Kindl that got past Al Montoya at 4:19. Montoya played well until the thirdperiod roof caved in, but Roberto Luongo will return to the net Tuesday in Buffalo.
The Panthers power play which had clicked in five straight games took an 0-for-5 as Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek notched 23 saves for his fourth shutout of the season. The Panthers continued a recent disturbing trend of committing too many penalties as they have been shorthanded 24 times in the past four games.
Again playing without their top two penalty-killing defensemen (Willie Mitchell and Erik Gudbranson) it caught up to them as Red Wings great Pavel Datsyuk scored a power-play goal at11:26 and then added an evenstrength tally 68 seconds later for the dagger.
In a defensive, scoreless first period, the closest thing resembling a goal came with 43.6 seconds left when Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist’s wrister from the right dot tipped off the stick blade of Panthers defenseman Steven Kampfer. Montoya’s toe wedged it against the goal post. After a lengthy review the NHL Situation Room confirmed the no-goal call due inconclusive evidence.