NHL Update: Detroit Red Wings handled Florida Panthers, 4-3
Todd Bertuzzi lit the lamp twice including the game-winner in the final stanza, as Detroit Red Wings jumped out to a big, early lead and went on to defeat Florida Panthers, 4-3, at BankAtlantic Centre on Friday night.
Pavel Datsyuk scored a goal and earned an assist for Detroit, which has won four consecutive games and sit atop the Central Division with 78 points. Danny Cleary also added a goal and Joey MacDonald made 29 saves to pick up the win.
Stephen Weiss and Radek Dvorak both found the net for Florida, which rounded out an unfavourable five-game home-stand 1-3-1. Dennis Wideman also netted a goal, while Tomas Vokoun was beaten for all four goals on 30 shots in the losing effort.
"They're a good team and they capitalized on us early," Panthers head coach Peter DeBoer said. "I credit our guys for coming back. We kept battling the full 60 minutes."
Detroit drew the first blood for 1-0 lead nearly 1 ½ minute into the opening period. It happened so when Henrik Zetterberg received a Brian Rafalski’s pass at the top of the blue line. He skated into the right side zone and centred it to Bertuzzi,
who tipped the puck home from the doorstep.
Red Wings doubled the advantage, 2-0, five minutes later when Jiri Hudler set up a breakaway by sending a long pass to Cleary, whose initial shot was saved by Vokoun, but Cleary chipped in the rebound.
Panthers finally got a break to make it 2-1 game in the latter stages of the opening session. The goal came when Dvorak rushed down the right boards and fired a wrist shot from the right circle. In what looked like a relatively easy save for
MacDonald, the puck flipped through his pads and slowly crossed the goal line.
Detroit regained its two-goal margin, 3-1, just 3 ½ minutes into the middle frame. The play was set up by Datsyuk, who picked Wideman's pocket right in front of the net. Datsyuk then just needed one move to knock the puck into the net for his
17th goal of the season.
However, the hosts registered two consecutive goals to tie it at 3-3. First, they capitalized on a Ruslan Salei’s slashing penalty to creep within another goal with 17 seconds remaining in the middle period. Right after a face-off win in the
Detroit zone, Wideman ripped a shot from the point which found its way through traffic and into the net.
The equalizer came near the halfway mark of the last period when Weiss blasted a slap shot from the high slot that sailed over MacDonald's left shoulder.
Red Wings, though, were back on top for good on Bertuzzi’s second goal with 7 ½ minutes to play in regulation. He chased a Detroit rush as Johan Franzen threw the puck in the high slot and Bertuzzi finished the game with a slap shot that found
its way to the net.
The visitors fended off an extra-skater play during the last 30 ticks to sew up the win.
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