Trending: Wings prevail in overtime for first victory of the season

SUNRISE, Fla. -- It took a little longer than anyone wanted but the Red Wings finally got one in the win column.
Although the Florida Panthers tied the game with 1:16 left in the third to force overtime, the Wings kept their poise and scored with 1:16 left in overtime to earn the team's first victory of the season.

Dennis Cholowski (power play), Thomas Vanek (power play), Dylan Larkin and Gustav Nyquist (overtime) scored for Detroit while Keith Yandle, Nick Bjugstad and Mike Hoffman scored for Florida.

Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard had 34 saves while Panthers goaltender Michael Hutchinson had 27.
The Wings improved to 1-5-2 while the Panthers fell to 1-2-2.
Detroit returns home to host the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday at Little Caesars Arena while Florida travels to New York to face the Rangers Tuesday.
1. Special teams: It is safe to say that the Red Wings needed all their special teams working to win this game. It was the two quick power-play goals in the second by Cholowski and Vanek that tied the game, 2-2. Then the Wings found themselves in the penalty box and killed off all five of the Panthers' chances. The Wings finished 2-for-3 on the power play. Howard also had to stand tall during Florida's man-advantage time and stopped Aleksander Barkov on a penalty shot at 1:49 of the third period.

Quotable: "Obviously we get down, 2-0, I thought we had played fine in the first. Then we get the goal called back. So now you're down, 2-0. For a team that's fragile, I thought we did a good job digging in there. We got the two power-play goals and all of a sudden we had a lot of momentum. We took away our momentum with the too-many-men call but our penalty kill and power play ended up winning us the game." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable II: "It was huge. I thought the power play got us back into the game and I think the penalty kill gave us a chance to win the game. Both sides were huge." -- Vanek
Quotable III: "I think I have just played (Barkov) so much I know he loves going to his backhand. That's sort of his bread and butter. He goes to his backhand, he pulls it and goes high with it. In the first period, I tried to take it away and that's what I tried to do there on the penalty shot as well." -- Howard
2.Dennis Cholowski: With all the injuries to the Red Wings' veteran defensemen and all the responsibility heaped upon rookies Cholowski, Joe Hicketts, Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak, Wings coach Jeff Blashill has consistently singled out Cholowski for his steady play. It is especially remarkable considering Cholowski was considered to be a long shot to make the team out of camp. At 5:57 of the second period, with the Wings on a two-man advantage, Cholowski shot the puck from the slot, beating Hutchinson. Just 18 seconds later, Cholowski had the second assist on Vanek's power-play goal that tied the game, 2-2. Cholowski now has two goals and three assists in six games. Cholowski finished with 32 shifts for 20:23, had a team-leading five shots, two giveaways, a takeaway and was plus-1. According to NHL Public Relations, Cholowski joins Hall of Famer Nick Lidstrom as the only defenseman in Detroit history with five points in his first six NHL games.

Quotable: "You can't be afraid of making a mistake, or else nothing's gonna happen. You're just gonna play conservative, and that's not gonna help anybody. You have to be able to try to make those plays that you were making in previous years. Sometimes they're not going to work, but you have to deal with it. We got the first one out of the way finally. We're all happy and hopefully we can carry this over into the next few games." -- Cholowski
Quotable II: "His head is always up and he's always there to make passes and get it in the forward's hands. He reminds me a lot of Zach Werenski in that sense, where their posture with the puck is almost if you're forechecking and you don't know what he's going to do because he's got his head up and his feet are moving. It's awesome having him back there." -- Larkin
Quotable III: "I think that's one of his pluses, he's just a real even-keeled person. It's probably hurt him at times in perception throughout his career where maybe people wanted more jam and wanted more demonstrative emotion and he just doesn't have that. He's a real even-keeled person. We've had some real good ones in Detroit that are similar type personalities. I think that allows him to play in those pressurized moments. I thought as the game went along, he lost his gap a little bit, I thought he started to get a little soft in his gap so that's something that we've got to make sure he gets back to doing it the right way. He's been thrown into the fire. He's had lots of minutes against the other teams' best players and obviously you don't get too many better players than Barkov, (Vincent) Trocheck and that crew. Good for him. It's a real bright spot for the organization." - Blashill
3.Dylan Larkin: Playing in his 250th career NHL game, Larkin has always done pretty well against the Panthers. At 7:50 of the second, Larkin and Darren Helm came in on a 2-on-1. Larkin gave it to Helm, who gave it right back to Larkin, who then deposited it past Hutchinson. Nyquist picked up the second assist. Larkin returned the favor to Nyquist in overtime on the game-winner. In 13 career games against Florida, Larkin has six goals and six assists. Larkin and Nyquist are tied for the team lead in points with seven. Larkin finished with 29 shifts for 24:23, had three shots, one hit, three giveaways, six takeaways, a blocked shot, was 10-for-18 in face-offs and was plus-1.

Quotable: "It does feel really good. Some music in the locker room after the game and some smiles. Two biggest things, we didn't get rattled, giving up two early and the Red Wings a week ago would have drooped down on the bench and the energy would have been terrible on our bench and it wasn't like that. We battled, the power play came up huge. We just found a way and everyone battled tonight." -- Larkin