RECAP: Detroit Red Wings 2, Florida Panthers 1
The Florida Panthers dropped their fifth-straight game with Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett
The mightily shorthanded Florida Panthers were 39.9 seconds away from starting suffering their second-straight shutout loss.
Mackie Samoskevich made sure of that with his 15th goal of the year, but the Panthers could not come up with the equalizer in a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
Anton Lundell came within inches of tying the game with 1.6 seconds to go, but Cam Talbot came up with a big pad save on his slap shot to lock up the wing and keep Detorit’s playoff hopes alive.
Florida, already missing stars Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk (among others) to injury and Aaron Ekblad to a suspension, opted to rest Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling upon clinching a playoff spot on Saturday night.
The Panthers put up a fight on Sunday — even with $49 million worth of players out of the lineup — but it was not enough to avoid dropping their fifth consecutive game..
After a first period where Florida outshot Detroit 10-7, Alex DeBrincat and J.T. Compher picked up goals in the second period to create a whole that the Panthers could not dig out of.
Talbot survived the 15-shot third period surge from Florida, stopping 32 of the 33 shots he faced.
Vitek Vanecek stopped 22 of 24 shots in his third regulation loss in five starts since being acquired by the Panthers from the Sharks, but he does not reserve any blame for this one.
Despite taking 10 shots in the first period, none of them came off high-danger chances and Detroit eased its way into the second period.
DeBrincat broke the seal for the Red Wings 4:37 into the second period, firing a wrist shot from the top of the face-off circle past Vanecek on a power play. A fitting spot to score from on the day Alex Ovechkin broke the NHL’s all-time goals record.
Compher gave Detroit a two-goal lead with 8:37 to go in the second period with a quick snap shot off the rush.
Florida had a few good chances to break the shutout bid earlier than it did, but it could not buy a goal, just as they had plenty of times over the past five games.
Brad Marchand had a clean look at his first goal as a Panther with 1:43 to go but just cracked the post.
Carter Verhaeghe had a wide open net in front of him with a chance to break his 12-game goal drought with 3:55 to go, but Talbot sprawled out to make the save. His goal drought now stands at 13 games.
Samoskevich finally broke the shutout bid with 39.9 seconds to go, beating Talbot with a wrist shot off of a feed from Carter Verhaeghe with the net empty.
With the loss — and a Senators win — the Panthers are now in danger of falling into a wild card spot.
Ottawa sits two points behind Florida for the third seed in the Atlantic Division after defeating the Panthers on Saturday and earning a 3-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.
With five games remaining on the schedule, Florida will have to balance keeping its roster fresh and healthy and fighting for playoff seeding with Barkov, Dmitry Kulikov and Nico Sturm all expected to return from their injuries during the team’s upcoming four-game homestand.
The Panthers will start that homestand on Tuesday night against the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs.