Red Wings Get By Panthers

     The Florida Panthers returned from the All-Star Game break with a 5-4 defeat to the Detroit Red Wings at BB&T Center on Tuesday night. It was the fourth game of a five-game homestand for the Cats who increased their losing streak to five games. The Red Wings won their sixth consecutive game and their eighth in the last nine games.
     Things began in an unusual way as Detroit(28-11-9) scored a shorthanded goal at 8:04 of the first period on the Panthers first power play. Jonathan Ericsson cleared the puck out of his zone to center ice and Drew Miller outhustled Aaron Ekblad for the loose puck at the Panthers blue line. He skated in on net and placed a backhand shot between the legs of Roberto Luongo for a 1-0 lead.
     The power play became a two-man advantage for Florida(20-15-10) and they were able to convert twice. Nick Bjugstad was in the left circle, fed a cross-ice pass to Aleksander Barkov in the low right circle and he snapped a shot by the left shoulder of Petr Mrazek to tie the game at 9:08. Brandon Pirri added another tally at 10:16 as he scored on a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle that barely crossed the goal line for a Panthers 2-1 margin. Prior to this game, the Cats were 1-for-23 on the power play in their last eight games.
     In the second period, the Red Wings responded quickly as they tied it 2-2 just 32 seconds into the frame. Gustav Nyquist shoveled a backhand pass from the end wall to the slot area which grazed off the stick of Justin Abdelkader. Henrik Zetterberg ripped a shot by the blocker of Luongo for his 15th goal of the season.
     Detroit regained the lead and then extended it in a time span of 1:19 as the same line scored twice. Riley Sheahan was to the left of the crease area and connected with Stephen Weiss and his backhand attempt was stopped by Luongo, however Luke Glendening pounced and scored on the rebound from the right of the blue paint at 7:07. They added another goal at 8:26 when Weiss scored from the left edge of the crease on a cross-ice pass from Sheahan.
     The Red Wings continued their momentum at 11:19 to make it 5-2. Weiss skated through the neutral zone and into the Panthers zone, threaded a lead pass to Glendening at the left circle dot and he released a wrist shot for his second goal of the contest. Al Montoya replaced Luongo in net for Florida one minute later.
     Florida attempted to climb out of the hole with 4:30 left in the second on the power play. Ekblad took a slapshot from the top of the zone which bounced off the back wall and Nick Bjugstad sliced a backhand shot from the left goal line into the top of the Red Wings cage as he tallied his 16th goal.
     The Panthers closed the margin down to 5-4 with 9:06 remaining in the third period. Barkov picked up a loose puck above the left circle, skated in and sent it to Brad Boyes in the slot where he redirected the puck by the left skate of Mrazek.