Detroit Falls to Panthers in Shootout 3-2

The Detroit Red Wings took on Aaron Ekblad and the Florida Panthers in a Friday night game with both teams looking to get back on track after losing their last respective games. Detroit entered the contest 2nd in the Atlantic with a record of 17-6-6 against Florida(11-8-7) having lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in a shoot out. Florida was looking for a W having also dropped a contest to the St. Louis Blues 4-2 but having had 4 days of rest in between games. The only roster note for the Wings is that Detroit had recalled Xavier Ouellet to replace injury Danny DeKeyser who is out with an upper body injury.

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First Period: Florida 2 Detroit 2

At the puck drop the Red Wings came out skating trading chances with the Panthers with neither team really gaining an edge in the opening minutes. Pavel Datsyuk drew a penalty while knifing through the middle as he was tripped just after gaining the zone. Florida did a great job stuffing the extremely predictable drop pass at the red line and move to the other side of the ice maneuver the Wings seem to have flounder with the last 3 games. Pavel Datsyuks line then comes out and makes hay of the man advantage. Riley Sheahan gets his 7th of the season jamming home a rebound past Roberto Luongo off of a Pavel Datsyuk shot. Things looked good for the Wings after that with a good follow-up shift from the Glendening line.

Things went south from there as the team gave up several turnovers in their own zone in front of Howard. Jonathan Ericsson committed one such turnover and it cost them the lead and momentum as Bergenheim fed Bolland who got the puck to former Red Wing 2nd round pick Tomas Fleischmann who put a shot over a sprawling Howard. Johan Franzen made matters worse taking 2 penalties, one a trip that was deserved and another very questionable interference call when he finished a check in front of the Florida net. Neither penalty lead to a goal but Florida held sway and scored their 2nd of the night when Jonathan Huberdeau and his linemates hemmed in the Red Wings for close to 60 seconds leaving Howard out to dry as Huberdeau fired a shot through a mess of Wings players that found twine. Florida didn’t let from their and things were getting out of hand until Tomas Tatar drew a tripping penalty with the period winding down.

With less than a minute left Henrik Zetterberg came up with the puck behind the net and fed Gustav Nyquist who swung a falling backhand shot on net that deflected off of Willie Mitchel and passed Luongo. The period ends with the Panthers out shooting the Wings 15-12 but Howard kept the team in the game making some big saves when they needed it and the Wings escaped with a tie and looked poised to take momentum back.

Second Period: Florida 2 Detroit 2

The 2nd period began with Mike Babcock matching the Glendening unit against Florida’s top line. This lead to the puck in the Detroit zone but Detroits forwards did a great job limiting shot attempts and quality. Glendening was also able to get some shots in on Bjugsted after the whistle and try to take the top unit off their game. From there the Panthers and Wings traded chances. Neither team seemed like it had the upper hand until Florida had the Zetterberg line hemmed in much like the Datsyuk line in the first period. Thankfully Howard made some good stops and the unit was able to clear the puck.

The respite wasn’t long as Florida carried the puck back into the Wings zone drawing a penalty on the play as Jurco, still out from the last shift, tripped the charging Panthers forward. Detroit’s PK remained perfect on the night as Glendening was able to clear the puck and eat the last seconds of the kill in the Florida zone. Helm then drew a power play from Aaron Ekblad sending Detroit for their 4th man advantage. After a few second on the power play the Zetterberg unit was able to keep possession and play alive for the entire 2 minute penalty leaving Pavel Dastyuk’s line to watch from the bench as the Zetterberg unit came close on several attempts to score.

With nothing to show on the power play the Two teams continued to trade chances at 5 on 5 play. Howard had to again bail out his team after an ill-advised Ericsson pinch at the blue line lead to a chance the other way and if not for the stick checking of Niklas Kronwall a goal surely would have been scored off of a rebound in front. Neither team would score in the period, Florida controlled more of the play and shots 21-18 in the Panthers favor.

Third Period: Florida 2 Detroit 2

Mike Babcock again elected to start the 4th line versus the 1st line of Florida. Like last time this ended up with the puck in the Detroit end in short order but the pressure of Glendening, Miller and Anderson kept the game tied. Sheahan kept up his good play generating offense and causing problems for Luongo in front of the net. The referee’s seem to lose their whistles in this period and thanks to a handful of missed calls lead to Kindl’s frustration came through as he was assessed a cross checking penalty to go with a pretty weak interference penalty considering the hacking and stick work allowed previously.

The masterwork that is the Detroit penalty kill did what it does best and killed both penalties with relative ease allowing only 2 shots while also generating 2 of their own short-handed. At 13:46 Mickey Redmond informed us that Stephen Weiss would be out for the rest of the game with an apparent shoulder injury sustained in a bad hit into the boards in the second period. Datsyuk would take shifts with the line in the absence of Weiss but he was unable to generate any offense with the extra minutes.

Zetterberg came alive again late in the third and tried to do it all himself and many times nearly succeeded. Florida seemed to wilt as the period went on and Detroit pressed the advantage eventually equaling the shot attempts. Everyone from Tatar and Sheahan to Smith and Ouellet did what they could to limit shot attempts and still found a way to generate offense and keep the game going. Neither team end up scoring forcing the game into over time for the second straight time for Detroit. Shots were 27-25 in favor of the Red Wings

Overtime/Shoot Out: Florida 3 Detroit 2

After a brief pause the teams switched ends and Detroit tried everything they could to end it before a shootout was needed. Tatar used his speed to generate offense to no avail, Zetterberg and Datsyuk did what they could on their respective lines and Howard held the fort. Detroit notched 4 shots to Florida’s 1 in the over time period and those numbers sum up the whole of the last 10 minutes or so of the game.

Then the game went to a shoot out….so…the FSD broadcast cut right to the Pistons game and nobody knows what happened….yep that sounds about right. Sadly Pirri and Trocheck did score for the Panthers while Nyquist deeked right into Luongo’s pads and Datsyuk was stuffed as the veteran netminder Luongo stuffed his shot attempt at the corner in tight.

Final Summery:

The Wings’ came out with a good start and turned to slop in their own zone and paid for it. Big Jonathan Ericsson had costly turnovers and Jakub Kindl and Johan Franzen taking penalties did nothing to help the team. If not for the work of Sheahan, Tatar, Nyquist and Zetterberg and Pavel this game goes out the window. Kronwall looked pedestrian at times and Ouellet showed that he is by far tied with Smith as the 4th best defenseman on the team. A tough loss for Detroit in a game where Howard held them in for the most part and then turned into the second coming of Rick DiPietro in the shoot out. If its legal i recommend that coach Babcock make a goalie change before the shootout so Howard is never in net. Detroit flies to Toronto for the second game of a back to back and they are going to have to show more attention to detail than they did tonight if they want to get 2 points against another Atlantic Division rival.

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