The Detroit Red Wings have made sure that the bad feelings from their season-opening 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens are but a distant memory.
Since that night nearly a week ago, they’ve rattled off three consecutive victories, with the latest being a 4-1 triumph over the Florida Panthers at Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday evening.
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The Red Wings were forced to play without forward Lucas Raymond, who was hurt in Monday afternoon’s 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Panthers were considerably shorthanded themselves, playing without Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, and Dmitry Kulikov.
First-year Red Wings forward Mason Appleton, who slotted into Raymond’s spot on the top line, has made the most of his recent promotion.
He scored twice on Wednesday, including the game’s opening goal early in the second period to break a scoreless tie. He also added a goal late in regulation into the vacated Panthers net.
After tallying the game-winning goal against the Maple Leafs on Monday, Appleton has the hot hand with three goals in his last two games.
Patrick Kane scored a power-play goal in the second period to increase Detroit’s lead to 2-0, while Michael Rasmussen would add a second empty-net goal in the final few seconds of the third period.
The Panthers managed to halve Detroit’s lead in the second period to 2-1 thanks to the third goal of the campaign from Brad Marchand, but it’s as close as the Panthers would get to drawing even.
Making his third consecutive start, goatlender Cam Talbot continued his strong play by turning aside all but one of the 22 shots the Panthers fired his way. His Florida counterpart in Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves in a losing effort.
Among Bobrovsky’s saves was a key third-period stop on rookie forward Emmitt Finnie, who was left all alone in front of the net after receiving a pass from fellow rookie Michael Brandsegg-Nygård.
The Red Wings will next prepare to face yet another divisional opponent in the Tampa Bay Lightning, who come to town for a Friday night matchup.
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