Kevin Spacey Witnesses Panthers Loss

     Actor Kevin Spacey made his first appearance to a Panthers home game on Saturday night as the Detroit Red Wings came back from two goals against the Florida Panthers to win 5-3 at BB&T Center. Spacey, a two-time Academy Award winner, has partnered with the Panthers organization by selling blue sweatshirts with his picture on it called Spacey In Space for charity since November.
     Florida(40-23-9) scored on their third shot of the game at 10:49 of the first period. Nick Bjugstad performed a back-and-forth pass with Jiri Hudler in the slot area before he ripped a snap shot by Jimmy Howard for a 1-0 lead.
     Detroit(36-25-11) came back and tied the game with an initial shot on their first power play with 1:35 left in the first. After winning a right circle face-off, Mike Green sent the puck across for Mike Richards to fire a slapshot from the left point. It was deflected in Tomas Tatar in the crease past Roberto Luongo for his 20th goal of the season.
     In the second period, the Panthers regained the lead at 7:08. Jussi Jokinen fed a lead pass into the Detroit zone and put Vincent Trocheck on a breakaway. He skated through the slot area and scored on a backhand shot for his 22nd goal.
     Teddy Purcell would get his 100th career goal at 12:48 and expanded their margin to 3-1. He took a shot from the crease which was saved. He went behind the Detroit cage, backhanded the puck to the front off the leg of Howard and into the net.
     The Red Wings cut the deficit to 3-2 on the power play with 10.1 seconds left in the frame. A mad scramble happened in the low slot when Justin Abdelkader poked the puck back to Pavel Datsyuk. He put in a soft shot through some traffic in front.
     Detroit tied the contest at 3:52 of the third period. Jonathan Ericsson blasted a slapshot from long range which was stopped by Jakub Kindl. Dylan Larkin pulled away and scored on a high wrist shot from the right-circle dot.
     The Red Wings took their first lead 4-3 at the at 8:39 mark of the stanza. Larkin lifted a shot from the left wing and it was redirected in by Luke Glendening in the blue paint. Datsyuk clinched it with an empty-net goal with 37 seconds to go.