#LGRW Final: Panthers outlast Red Wings, 2-1, to salvage series split

DETROIT -- In another physical, nip-and-tuck battle between a pair of familiar foes, the Florida Panthers edged the visiting Detroit Red Wings, 2-1, at BB&T Center on Tuesday night.

Florida (7-1-2) salvaged a split in the two-game series, and recorded its third one-goal win over Detroit (3-9-2) this season. The Red Wings posted a decisive 32-22 advantage on shots.
Detroit will wrap up its six-game, 11-day road trip with a two-game series at Nashville that gets underway on Thursday night.

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill was pleased with the Red Wings' defensive effort, but wants to see his team playing more to its strength, in the offensive zone.
"I think we were competitive; I think we did a good job battling," Blashill said. "I thought we hurt ourselves the second half of the first (period) and the first half of the second by turning pucks over. We're a good o-zone team. The stats say that; it looks like that when we're in the o-zone. We've got to do a better job of managing the puck, so we don't ground ourselves down. "But obviously they're a good team. They pushed back hard in those stretches. I thought overall we did a pretty good job of defending; I didn't think we gave them a whole bunch of chances. These are the types of games that we need to put ourselves in. We've got to keep finding ways to win these games, though."
The Red Wings jumped out to the early 1-0 lead after winger Filip Zadina scored his first goal of the season just over three and a half minutes into the game (16:29). Captain Dylan Larkin weaved through traffic in the center of the ice and found Zadina on the left wing, who repositioned the puck off his skate and onto his stick, beating Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on the short side.

With 4:06 remaining in the opening stanza, Florida's Alex Wennberg scored his second goal in as many games after being set up in front of the goal by winger Jonathan Huberdeau. Both teams headed to the dressing room at intermission with the score tied, 1-1, and the Panthers holding a slight edge on shots, 9-7.
Florida took the lead, 2-1, with a power-play goal and the eventual game-winner at 8:04 of the second period. Aaron Ekblad fired a shot from the right side that bounced off Patric Hornqvist's chest and into the back of the net.
"We need results and we need them now, with the hole we dug ourselves into the past couple of weeks," Larkin said. "But the process of our game right now is almost where it needs to be, consistently in the last three games, and I feel like it's building. We had chances tonight, we had looks on the power play, we had zone time, we just didn't get it by Bobrovsky, and it could have gone either way tonight."
Thursday's puck drop from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena is set for 8 p.m. ET (Fox Sports Detroit Plus, 97.1 The Ticket). It will mark the first of eight games between the Central Division foes in the final 42 regular season games.