Panthers rally with two quick goals, hand Red Wings fifth straight loss

SUNRISE, Fla.-- Mike Hoffman and Dominic Toninato scored nine seconds apart in the second period to give the Florida Panthers the lead, and they defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 at BB&T Center on Saturday.

Hoffman had a goal and two assists for the Panthers (19-13-5), who have won four of five. Jonathan Huberdeau had an assist to extend his point streak to five games, and Chris Driedger made 35 saves.
"I thought we started off pretty good and then kind of let our foot off the gas a little bit," Hoffman said. "Too many mistakes that caused goals. There was going to be a little adversity in the game, especially coming off a four-day break. I like the way we battled back and were able to slowly chip away."
WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Panthers highlights]
Frans Nielsen scored his first goal of the season for the Red Wings (9-27-3), who have lost five straight and are 2-15-0 in their past 17 games. Jimmy Howard made 25 saves.
"I'm super happy with our effort," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "I thought we played our [butts] off. I thought we played tough and competitive. We played hard and didn't melt when we got down. We talked about not melting in those situations, and we didn't. It's as good as we've played in a long time. We played fast and skilled, but we gave up too many easy chances."
Hoffman tied it 3-3 at 6:39, and Toninato scored at 6:48 after Detroit forward Valtteri Filppula mishandled a pass in front of his net for a 4-3 lead.
"That was definitely a big momentum swing for us getting those goals so quick and getting some energy off it," Panthers defenseman Anton Stralman said. "We played a little bit better after those goals, but overall our game needs to be better."

Stralman made it 5-3 at 13:24 of the third period. Luke Glendening made it 5-4 at 15:49 with Howard pulled for an extra attacker.
Detroit outshot Florida 16-5 in the third period and 39-30 in the game.
"This is far from our worst game this year," Nielsen said. "We did a lot of good stuff out there tonight. We created a lot of chances against a good team."
Evgenii Dadonov gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 2:46 of the first period with a power-play goal when he one-timed Huberdeau's pass to the slot. Darren Helm made it 1-1 at 9:29 when he scored on a breakaway, and Dylan Larkin scored 38 seconds later for a 2-1 lead.

Nielsen's shorthanded goal made it 3-1 46 seconds into the second period. Brett Connolly made it 3-2 at 1:58 on the same Florida power play.
"You could say his goal certainly got it going and then you could say [Stralman's] goal there in the third gave us a little bit of breathing room and we needed it in the end," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. "But our power play, it looked like it wasn't a very good one at that time when we gave up a shorty and then we all of a sudden get ourselves right back in the mix. So it was a big goal."

They said it

"I'll go back and say, if we continue to play like that and have that next-shift mentality and play that hard and competitive, we're going to get our results that I (thought) we probably deserved tonight." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"You look at this game, we're happy with the points, but the way we played, it's not close to where we want to be and it's not going to be a game that brings us success this year. We pulled it out. But overall we need to be better. We have to set a higher standard for ourselves because there's some big games coming up for us. Starts tomorrow." -- Panthers defenseman Anton Stralman

Need to know

Filppula did not play in the third period after sustaining an undisclosed injury. Blashill said he would have an update on his status Sunday. ... Huberdeau has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in his point streak. ... Detroit center Luke Glendening won 12 of 16 face-offs (75 percent). ... Red Wings forward Adam Erne played 10:49 and had three shots in his return to the lineup after missing one game with an illness. ... Panthers defenseman Riley Stillman played 21:17 after being recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Friday. ... Florida played without defensemen Aaron Ekblad and MacKenzie Weegar, who were scratched each with an upper-body injury. ... Panthers forward Viktor Kozlov scored two goals seven seconds apart on Feb. 10, 2004 against the Montreal Canadiens.

What's next

Red Wings: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Panthers: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, FS-F, RDS, NHL.TV)