Red Wings spoil the Sunrise jersey debut, beat Panthers 5-3
Florida never led, three minors cost them a power-play goal in the third, and Daniil Tarasov beat his old team with 23 saves.
Red Wings 5, Panthers 3. The cats never led in their new Sunrise sweaters, and the night was decided by 45 undisciplined seconds early in the third period. Detroit was sharper and more opportunistic when it counted, and Florida spent the last 17 minutes chasing a game it should have controlled.
How it went
Carter Mazur opened the scoring at 5:26 of the first period with his first NHL goal. Sam Reinhart answered at 14:19, finishing a play from Carter Verhaeghe and Sandis Vilmanis for his eighth goal of the season.
Alex DeBrincat put Detroit back in front 86 seconds into the second. Then the penalty kill went on offense: with Dmitry Kulikov in the box, Aaron Ekblad tied it shorthanded on a backhand at 15:25.
The third is where everything unraveled. Lars Eller took a high-sticking minor 21 seconds into the period, Justin Faulk scored on the power play at 2:08, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård made it 4-2 at 2:53. Sam Bennett tipped one home at 16:40 to make it interesting again, and Emmitt Finnie hit the empty net with three seconds remaining.
Detroit outshot Florida 29-26. The Panthers went 0-for-2 on the power play while Detroit converted one of three, and Daniil Tarasov made 23 saves against his former team.
Three things from Sunrise:
1. The 45 seconds. It was a tie game against a division rival at home, and the cats surrendered two goals in less than a minute. The first came on the power play created by an unnecessary high stick, and the second followed 45 seconds later. Veteran teams settle down and regroup in that moment, and Florida didn't.
2. Bennett is back on the scoresheet. By our count, that tip-in snapped a five-game pointless stretch. He also played 18:59, up 4.6 minutes from Friday's win over Winnipeg, per NHL data. Maurice leaned on him while chasing, and he delivered.
Reinhart and Verhaeghe both extended their point streaks to four games, so the offense isn't the primary concern tonight.
3. The fourth line barely played. Bokondji Imama got 4:28, Cole Schwindt 4:32 and Garnet Hathaway 6:25, down from 6.1, 8.5 and 9.6 minutes against Winnipeg on Friday, per NHL data. Trailing for most of the evening, Maurice rode his top nine, and Seth Jones logged 27:23 on the back end.
Physical effort wasn't the problem either. Brady Tkachuk threw seven hits, and by our count the boxscore has Florida out-hitting Detroit 41-19.
Ferda play of the night:
Ekblad's penalty kill. Early in the Kulikov minor he blocked a Detroit shot at 13:45, and Jacob Markstrom then stopped three shots in six seconds to keep it 2-1.
Twelve seconds after the last save, Ekblad was at the other end. His first shot was stopped, Hathaway's backhand went wide, and Ekblad buried his own backhand for his first goal of the season. Hathaway's assist was his first point of the year, in his 15th game. That's a ferda shift from both of them.
Pabs' read
This one is on the discipline, not the goaltending. Markstrom made 24 saves on 28 shots in his first game since Oct. 17, and his three-save stand on the kill set up the tying goal. Three Florida minors handed Detroit three power plays, and the one in the third decided it.
Don't panic about one disappointing loss in a pink sweater. The winning streak stopped at three games, so go start another one. But Detroit is 6-2-1 in its last nine, and these are exactly the Atlantic Division points Maurice called critical before the game. Florida gave two of them away, one penalty at a time.
Next game
Chicago visits Sunrise on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV and HBO Max. Then the cats travel north for Washington on Saturday and Boston on Sunday.
