Red Wings Fly By Panthers

     The Florida Panthers fell to the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in overtime at BB&T Center on Saturday night. The Panthers will not play another home game in Sunrise until November 8. The Red Wings stopped a seven-game winless streak to begin the regular season.
     In the first period, Florida(1-2-3) jumped onto the lead at 7:34. Evgenii Dadonov was at center ice and guided a pass ahead to Keith Yandle. He put a wrist shot from the left circle past Jimmy Howard.
     Detroit(1-5-2) had a goal waved off at the 9:31 mark. Trevor Dailey had the puck on the left-wing boards and sent it to toward the net. It was redirected into the Cats cage by Michael Rasmussen in the low slot, but it was negated because of goalie interference in the blue paint by Justin Abdelkader.
     The Panthers made it 2-0 with 3:50 left in the first period. Aleksander Barkov won a left-circle faceoff. He tapped it back to Nick Bjugstad and he lifted a high snap shot into the Red Wings net.
     The Red Wings got a 5-on-3 situation early in the second period for 1:56 and they capitalized on it with two power-play goals. Frans Nielsen won a right-circle faceoff, Andreas Athanasiou placed a pass from the right wing to Dennis Cholowski at the top of the zone and he wristed a shot in at 5:47. Moments later, Thomas Vanek gave up the puck to Nielsen at the Panthers blue line and received it back on the edge of the right circle. He blistered a slap shot for a tally at the 6:05 mark.
     The momentum continued for Detroit as they moved out in front 3-2 with 12:10 remaining in the second. Gustav Nyquist dropped a pass to Dylan Larkin in the left circle. Larkin performed a give-and-go pass with Darren Helm in the slot area and put the puck into a wide-open net.
     The Cats had the opportunity to tie the contest early in the third. Barkov was hooked from behind by Cholowski as he skated on net with a breakaway and was rewarded a penalty at the 1:29 mark. He slowly skated through the right circle, lost control of the puck on his stick and fanned on the penalty shot.
     Florida evened it up 3-3 with 1:16 left in the third. Yandle made a lead pass from the red line to Mike Hoffman. He was on the left-wing wall and flicked a shot that got by Howard.
     Detroit was able to get the last laugh with 1:16 to go in overtime. Larkin stripped the puck from Yandle at the Panther blue line. Nyquist raced to the loose puck, went through the slot alone and snapped in a shot for the game-winning goal.