Point streak comes to a halt with regulation loss to Detroit
The Panthers’ loss to the Red Wings on Sunday snapped their eight-game point streak to start the season as Detroit goalie Thomas Greiss stymied Florida.
The Florida Panthers’ point streak to start the season has come to an end.
Despite an aggressive offensive attack once again, Florida could barely get a shot past Detroit Red Wings goaltender Thomas Greiss in a 4-1 loss Sunday at the BB&T Center.
This was Florida’s first loss in regulation this season. The Panthers are now 6-1-2. The Red Wings, who had lost eight consecutive games (two in overtime), are 3-8-2.
“Outside of today’s game, I thought we’ve been consistent in most games,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “Whether we’re ahead or behind, we don’t change the approach. Today it seemed like we were chasing the game more than in the past.
“It’s going to be a test every night.”
The Red Wings outshot the Panthers 38-37. Florida’s top-line trio of Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov and Anthony Duclair combined for 12 of the Panthers’ shots on goal.
While the total shots were equal, the Panthers had more scoring chances. According to the statistics website Natural Stat Trick, Florida had a 25-15 edge in scoring chances
Sunday. Eleven of those 25 for the Panthers came from Verhaeghe, Barkov and Duclair.
But Greiss, who came into the game with a career 5-2-3 record and .923 save percentage against Florida, held strong. He stopped 36 of 37 shots, including the first 27 he faced.
“On every shot, he was there,” Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau said. “He wasn’t giving up good rebounds outside of his crease. He was really good. We just have to come back Tuesday, be better and find the back of the net.”
Quenneville added: “I thought we had a good start to the game. I didn’t think we had the quality or the quantity as the game went on that we would have liked . ... We didn’t get enough shots through, enough traffic to create the quality we wanted.”
Alex Wennberg broke up the shutout when he tipped in a long shot from Anton Stralman with 17:51 left in regulation to make it 2-1. It was Wennberg’s first goal of the season. Greiss stopped the final nine shots while Detroit added two more goals to pull away.
“Too bad we couldn’t feed off that,” Wennberg said of his goal.
Marc Staal, Givani
Smith and Robby Fabbri scored on Chris Driedger, who stopped 33 of 36 shots. Vladislav Namestnikov added an emptynet goal with 2:42 left.
Through five starts, Driedger has a 3-1-1 record, a .936 save percentage and a 1.97 goalsagainst average.
“He had a good game,” Quenneville said. “Thought he gave us a chance, kept us going. Obviously we didn’t press enough at the end.”
The Panthers and Red Wings play again at 7 p.m. Tuesday as Florida continues its six-game homestand. The Panthers are 2-1-0 against the Red Wings this season, winning the first two games of the eight-game regularseason series in Detroit by identical 3-2 scores.
“We can’t bury our heads too much,” Wennberg said. “It’s a different schedule. We’re playing them again. That’s a great chance to get back at it.”
ANOTHER FOURTH-LINE CHANGE
The turnstile that has become the left wing spot on the Panthers’ fourth line continued spinning Sunday.
The latest player to get time there: Mason Marchment. The 25-year-old spent the game on a line with center Juho Lammikko and right wing Noel Acciari.
Marchment is the fourth player to get time as the fourth line’s left wing through nine games, joining Ryan Lomberg (one game), Vinnie Hinostroza (four games) and Aleksi Heponiemi (three games).
Through nine games,
the quartet has combined for one goal: Heponiemi’s overtime game-winner against the Red Wings on Jan. 30 in his NHL debut.
The Panthers’ three scratches Sunday: forward Brett Connolly, Hinostroza and defenseman Markus Nutivaara.
THIS AND THAT
Panthers defenseman
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Radko Gudas has a teamhigh 47 hits this season, including 25 over the past three games.
The Panthers only had
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one power play Sunday, coming late in the third period when they were down 3-1. Nine of Florida’s 29 goals this season — 31 percent — have come with the man advantage.
Florida’s eight-game
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point streak was its second-longest point streak to start a season in franchise history and longest since the institution of a shootout tiebreaker and elimination of ties in 2005-06. The Panthers were the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss before Sunday.
A—3,706 Referees—Frederick Morton. Linesmen—Pierre Toomey.
T—2:26.