A familiar problem plagued the Florida Panthers once again on Thursday night, and it cost them dearly.
Florida once again struggled to stay out of the penalty box, this time doing it against a Detroit Red Wings team that has been on fire when given a man advantage.
Detroit scored three times while on the power play, defeating the Panthers 5-2 at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida got off to a fast start, with four shots and a goal post in the game’s first four minutes, dominating puck possession and zone time.
That changed when Evan Rodrigues took an offensive zone penalty with Florida on the power play, and Detroit would make them pay.
Jonatan Berggren took a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Sergei Bobrovsky on his glove side to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at the 8:48 mark.
Just over two minutes later, Florida’s hottest line picked up another goal.
A nice shoulder fake by Carter Verhaeghe in the offensive zone led to a quick shot on Cam Talbot. The rebound bounced toward Anton Lundell at the side of the crease, and he poked the puck into a yawning net to tie the game at one.
Dylan Larkin scored on a nice passing play with the Red Wings on the power play to give the visitors a 2-1 lead just under eight minutes into the second period.
Just 29 seconds later, Rodrigues made up for his earlier snafu by wiring a wrist shot over Talbot’s blocker to quickly tie the game at two, finishing a nice cross-ice pass by rookie Mackie Samoskevich.
An offensive zone tripping call on Jesper Boqvist led to another Red Wings power play goal, their third of the game, on a nasty wrist shot by Patrick Kane with around six minutes left in the second.
Marco Kasper scored less than two minutes later, making it 4-2 Detroit on just their 15th shot on goal.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice felt he’d seen enough of Bobrovsky at that time, pulling his starter and sending Spencer Knight into the game.
Florida pushed hard during the final frame, generating THISMANY shots on goal, but Talbot stood extremely tall in goal and kept the Panthers at bay.
An empty net goal by Larkin would cement the victory for Detroit.
Florida will host Anaheim on Saturday before heading back out west on another road trip.
On to the Ducks.
QUICK THOUGHTS
Make it losses in three of four and seven of 11 for the Cats.
Lundell is now up to six points over his past nine games.
Verhaeghe has points in consecutive games after logging an assist on Tuesday night in Jersey.
Rodrigues has two goals over his past four games after going the previous 15 without lighting the lamp.
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