RECAP: Red Wings 'played hard back,' rewarded with 5-3 victory at Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Posting their third win in their last four games, the Detroit Red Wings kicked off a back-to-back set in the Sunshine State with a big 5-3 victory over the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday night.

“This is a tough building to go in,” Michael Brandsegg-Nygård said. “They play hard and I thought we played hard back. I think we played a good game. We were solid in our D-zone and took what we got.”

In their respective creases, netminder Daniil Tarasov made 23 saves for Detroit (7-5-3; 17 points) while goalie Jacob Markstrom finished with 24 for Florida (8-5-2; 18 points). 

“Anytime you play against this Florida team, it’s done in the trenches,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s along the boards, net-front, heavy. You got to drag players around. You got to stay in battles and try to win as many as you possibly can, and I liked our effort and our commitment to that. I thought we got better as the night went on. I thought goalies on both sides played really well, and we won the special-teams battle. So, at the end of the night, to win in this building you have to have all of that and maybe sometimes more.”

Carter Mazur’s first career goal — the 24-year-old forward was playing his 18th NHL game — gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at 5:26 of the first period. The puck found its way onto Mazur’s stick after Moritz Seider rimmed it around the boards from the right point. Mazur then skated into the left face-off circle and fired a wrist shot past Markstrom.

“It was a relief, for sure,” Mazur said. “Especially going through all those injuries throughout my career, to finally get that one it felt really special for me.”

Florida evened the score on a first-period wrist shot of its own, this one courtesy of Sam Reinhart at 14:19. He watched Sandis Vilmanis win a board battle at the half wall and send the puck to Carter Verhaeghe, whose drop pass found Reinhart on the move inside the right face-off circle.

Just 1:26 into the second period, the Red Wings took a 2-1 lead when Alex DeBrincat scored off the rush for his seventh goal of the season. Justin Faulk started the play, speeding through the neutral zone and sliding a pass to Viktor Arvidsson as the Swedish forward entered the Panthers’ defensive zone. And in front of the benches, Gustav Forsling lost a tire — enabling DeBrincat to skate into the right face-off circle all by himself.

Detroit gave up a short-handed goal to Aaron Ekblad, who pounced on a loose puck below the goal line and backhanded it in off Tarasov with 4:35 remaining before the second intermission to make it 2-2.

But the start of the third period belonged to the Red Wings, who scored twice in 45 seconds to open a 4-2 lead.

Faulk broke the tie at 2:08, hammering a slap shot home on the power play. The veteran defenseman, who now has three goals this season, was assisted by Andrew Copp and Brandsegg-Nygård.

Detroit added to its lead at 2:53, when Brandsegg-Nygård found room in the middle of the slot and one-timed Lucas Raymond’s centering pass into the net for his third goal of the campaign. Copp picked up the secondary assist.

"They're important pieces for our team," Tarasov said of his younger teammates like Brandsegg-Nygård. "They're keeping a lot of energy in this group and the older guys are trying to help them."

Although the Panthers made it 4-3 at 16:40 of the third period with Markstrom on their bench in favor of the extra attacker, the Red Wings sealed the divisional win with Emmitt Finnie’s empty-net goal at 19:57.

 Assisted by Seider, Finnie has found twine seven times this season.

“We played tight,” McLellan said of his club's play in the final frame. “We checked well. There were some breakdowns, but they forecheck as hard as anybody in the League. I thought we could’ve taken care of (the 6-on-5 situation) a little bit better, but for the most part we did what we could and not necessarily what we wanted to – you never get that against Florida, but we had some structure and predictability to our game.”

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will have a quick turnaround, facing the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

McLellan on Mazur

"He's starting to look a little more confident. He's making some plays, shooting the puck - that's the player that we thought we had. For whatever reason, didn't get off to the best start."

Mazur on how Detroit earned the victory on Monday

“I think it was a good response from the last game against St. Louis. I think we just came out hard, especially a tough team in Florida but we just got to keep building off of that.”

Mazur on how his goal came to be

“Just a rim by (Seider). Lucky enough came through three sets of feet. Again, just put my head down and tried to shoot it in the back of the net. Luckily, it went in.”

Mazur on how he felt the Red Wings handled the Panthers’ late push

“I think we did a really good job. Letting in that one is kind of tough because they kind of got a little bit momentum back, but I think we killed it pretty quick right away and then (Finnie) icing it was pretty big for us as well.”

Tarasov on what Detroit's dressing room was like following Monday's win

"It's a tough building and a tough team to play. It's never pretty here, and I think we just deserved it."