Red Wings Occupy Panthers

     The Detroit Red Wings exposed the Florida Panthers 5-2 at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night. The Cats recently played four of their past five games on the road prior to this contest. 

     The Panthers now have a 5-6-1 record in their past 12 contests. The Red Wings improved to 8-2-0 since Todd McClellan took over as their head coach. Former Panthers player Vladimir Tarasenko made his first appearance in Sunrise since capturing the Stanley Cup last June. 

     Detroit(21-19-4) skated out to a 1-0 lead with the man advantage at the 8:48 mark of the first period. Tarasenko angled a pass from the right wing and Erik Gustafsson made a left-outlet pass from the top of the zone. Jonatan Berggren released a wrist shot from the left circle past Sergei Bobrovsky for his seventh tally of the year. 

     Florida(26-17-3) responded and tied it 1-1 with 8:59 remaining in the first. Dmitry Kulikov passed the puck from the right point. Carter Verhaeghe took a shot from the right circle which was saved by Cam Talbot. Anton Lundell collected his 10th goal of the campaign as he steered it in from the left side of the crease. 

     In the second period, the Red Wings made it 2-1 at 7:52 on the power play. Alex DeBrincat sent a cross-ice pass from the left circle to Patrick Kane in the right circle. He centered it to the crease area and Dylan Larkin guided the puck in with a forehand shot for his 19th goal this season. 

     It became 2-2 as the Panthers answered by 29 seconds later. Mackie Samoskevich connected a pass from the left wing and Evan Rodrigues snapped a shot from the inner right circle for his ninth goal of the campaign.

     The Red Wings reclaimed the lead 3-2 on the power play with 6:16 left in the second. Mo Seider made a square pass from the top of the zone to Mo Seider on the left point. He pushed a diagonal pass to his right and Kane rifled a wrist shot from the right-circle dot for his 11th goal this season. 

     Detroit increased their lead to 4-2 with 4:19 to go in the period. Larkin got to a loose puck at the Cats blue line. Marco Kasper would fire a snap shot from the high slot for his fifth goal in 2024-25. The Panthers replaced Bobrovsky in net with Spencer Knight following the tally. 

     The Cats pulled their goalie with over three minutes remaining for an extra attacker. The Red Wings expanded it to 5-2 when Larkin got an empty-net goal for his 20th goal of the season with 1:22 left.