Red Wings Edge Panthers

     The Florida Panthers played their final home game before the three-week Winter Olympic break on Thursday night at BB&T Center as they fell to the Detroit Red Wings 3-1. The Cats have lost four of their last five games and five of seven. The Panthers took the season series over the Red Wings in their first campaign together as division opponents.
     The first period was dominated by Detroit(26-19-12) as they outshot the Cats 11-1 in the first 19 minutes of the game. That did not matter with 25.4 seconds left in the first as Florida(22-28-1) took their only lead.
     Scottie Upshall came out of the penalty box behind the Red Wings defense at center ice and received a lead pass from Tomas Kopecky in the Panthers zone. Upshall skated in alone and put the puck by Jimmy Howard for a Florida 1-0 lead. It was Upshall's tenth goal this season and Kopecky's 100th NHL assist.
     The Red Wings converted during their third opportunity on the power play at 6:30 of the second period. Niklas Cronwall took a slapshot from the top of the zone which was saved by Tim Thomas. Justin Abdelkader swept the rebound to the left side of the crease and Daniel Alfredsson scored on a wrist shot for his 13th goal in a Red Wings uniform. Alfredsson tied Nicklas Lidstrom for second-highest scoring Swedish player in NHL history with that point.
     Gustav Nyquist gave Detroit the lead with 6:38 left in the second on an unassisted goal. He skated with the puck through the neutral zone on the left side and snapped a shot from the top left circle over the right shoulder of Thomas for his 14th tally this season. Detroit had a 23-8 shot advantage over Florida after two periods.
     In the third period, the Red Wings wrapped up the contest as Brian Lashoff scored into an empty net with 19.1 seconds remaining to make it 3-1. He had just finished serving a two-minute penalty, got the puck after it hit the back boards behind the Panthers cage and shot into the open net.
     Detroit went 1-for-7 with the man advantage while Florida went scoreless on the power play on three occasions. Thomas kept the Cats in the game as he made 30 saves and dropped to 15-17-3. Howard stopped 23 of 24 shots and raised his record to 12-12-9 this season.