DETROIT – Unable to overcome the absence of a multitude of key players, the Florida Panthers ended their road trip with a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday.
Trying to let a few players get healthy heading into the playoffs, the already injury-plagued Panthers took the ice without Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett or Gustav Forsling in Detroit.
“It was good when you’re considering how we measure ourselves with what we give up, regardless of who’s in the lineup,” Head coach Paul Maurice said when asked about his team's performance. “I liked our first [period].”
Filling in, Rasmus Asplund, Jesse Puljujarvi and Matt Kiersted were recalled from the AHL.
Overall, the Panthers were missing six of their current top 10 scorers.
“I thought the guys coming in did an unbelievable job,” forward Mackie Samoskevich said. “It was almost seamless. They played great and fit into the game right away.”
With the loss, the Panthers now sit at 44-29-4 with five games left to play in the regular season.
As it stands now, the defending Stanley Cup champions find themselves just two points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division, but also just two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators for the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“I wouldn’t say it matters where we end up,” Samoskevich said. “You’ve got to beat everybody if you’re going to win it all. I think it’s just not opening up our game, staying tight and working on our forecheck. That’s what works in the playoffs. I think we’re doing that right now."
During a scoreless first period, Vitek Vanecek came up with two big stops for the Panthers. After gobbling up a dangerous re-direct from Patrick Kane at 12:14, the veteran goaltender denied Lucas Raymond on a point-blank shot from the doorstep on the penalty kill later on.
Breaking the ice in the second period, Alex DeBrincat put the Red Wings on top when he buried a wicked shot from the left circle on the power play to make it 1-0 at 4:37.
Enter the matchup, the Red Wings ranked third in the NHL on the power play at 28.1%.
Doubling the lead for Detroit, J.T. Compher flew down the left side of the ice and beat Vanecek with a far-side shot from the left circle in transition to make it 2-0 at 11:23.
“I thought we got in a little trouble there when we were in the penalty box as much in the second period,” Maurice said. “They scored the goal and got rolling at the end to make it 2-0. It settled back in after that.”
Near the end of a back-and-forth third period, the fists started flying.
When the dust settled, A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich were in the box for the Panthers for roughing, with Ben Chiarot in the box for the Red Wings for a roughing penalty of his own.
Gadjovich also received a 10-minute misconduct.
Denying the Panthers a shot at halving their deficit with 3:55 remaining in regulation, Cam Talbot dove to his right to cover a loose puck before Puljujarvi had a chance to tap it in.
Putting the Panthers on the board, Samoskevich fired a shot from the left circle that caught a piece of Anton Lundell and sailed into the cage to make it 2-1 with 39.9 seconds left.
