Red Wings Lose Fifth Straight, Fall to Florida 3-2 in OT

The Red Wings are a good luck charm for opposing rookies seeking their first goal. Chicago’s Pius Suter scored his first three a week ago. Tonight it was Florida’s 20-year-old Aleksi Heponiemi, scoring in overtime to give the Panthers a 3-2 victory over the Red Wings.

The good news is the Wings looked better. The bad news?  They lost their fifth straight.

Florida opened the scoring in the first when a shot from Aleksander Barkov banked off Danny DeKeyser and into the net. Anthony Mantha would score later in the period, after Taro Hirose backhanded a shot that ended up on net. A waiting Mantha who was already in the slot and snapped the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game at one.

Tyler Bertuzzi would get his fifth goal of the year after he deposited a Troy Stecher rebound past Bobrovsky, giving the Wings a 2-1 lead. The Red Wings held that lead until the waning seconds of the first when Keith Yandle banged home a goal with 0.5 left in the period.

More good news? The Wings didn’t fold under the frustration.

A scoreless second gave way to a third with great chances for both teams. Hirose was promoted to the top line after Bertuzzi left the game with an upper body injury and fed a beauty to Mantha in the slot, but it wasn’t to be. The game headed to overtime where Heponiemi registered his first NHL goal. The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James tweeted that Bertuzzi’s status for tomorrow is questionable.

Red Wings goals courtesy of the Red Wings Twitter handle:

Mantha

Bertuzzi

A few final thoughts on the Red Wings 3-2 loss

• • If there were any doubts that Hirose should be a regular in the lineup, that ended tonight. Hirose engineered at least three different scoring chances, including the pass to Mantha in the third that saw him one on one with Bobrovsky. Keep that kid in the lineup.
  • It remains to be seen what caused Bertuzzi to leave but an absence of any kind is not good news for a team that has struggled to score. He currently leads Detroit in goals with five.
  • The decision to bench Larkin and Mantha during the first two power play opportunities is not one I would have made. If you’re going to hold them accountable, then explain why guys at even strength are given a pass. The power play has struggled enough this season. There’s no reason to muck it up further by keeping off two of the team’s best players.
  • Matthias Brome is definitely due. But he surely doesn’t have puck luck on his side right now.

Detroit and Florida are back at it tomorrow night.