Sizzling power play leads Red Wings over Cup champion Panthers

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News on Jan 16, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SUNRISE, Fla. — If this is some sort of a defining road trip for the Red Wings, they began it Thursday in resoundingly impressive fashion.

The Wings skated past defending Stanley Cup champion Florida, 5-2, to open this difficult four-game road trip and rebound from a disappointing loss Tuesday at home to San Jose.

The difference for the Wings was a power play that is currently playing at an elite level. The Wings scored three power-play goals, and now have 17 power-play goals over the last 10 games and have scored a power-play goal in nine of the last 10 games.

Jonatan Berggren, Dylan Larkin and Patrick Kane had power-play goals, but it was Marco Kasper's long range shot 1 minute, 57 seconds after Kane scored, at 15:41 of the second period, that gave the Wings a 4-2 lead and moved Florida to pull goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (11 saves on 15 shots) with Spencer Knight.

Larkin clinched it with an empty-net goal, his 20th goal.

Goaltender Cam Talbot made 40 saves to earn the victory. The Panthers outshot the Wings, 42-20.

The Wings have now won three games in their last 13 visits (3-8-2) to Amerant Bank Arena.

The Wings (21-19-4) have won eight of their last 10 games, while the Panthers (26-17-3) have won four of their last 11 games (4-6-1).

After the sluggish loss to the Sharks, coach Todd McLellan was interested to see how the Wings would respond in the opening game of this trip in the Stanley Cup champion's team rink, no less.

"The best (litmus test)," said McLellan after the morning skate. "It's more coming off a disheveled effort is the best way to put it and coming into the Stanley Cup champs' building on the road after that type of effort. I'm excited to see what we can put forth.

"It'll be a big challenge for our group but we need it right now."

The Panthers have made it to the last two Stanley Cup Finals, defeating Edmonton last year in seven games. McLellan has plenty of respect for the way Florida goes about winning games.

"They're led by (coach) Paul Maurice and their staff, and they've put together a championship caliber team with different ingredients," McLellan said. "The ingredients play their roles and they come after you. There is nothing passive in their game. They come in waves and eventually they believe that minute one and 60 have equal importance and they keep coming and coming.

"Throw in their skill level and experience and it makes for a big difference. They are a solid team."

Berggren opened the game's scoring with his seventh goal at 8:48 of the first period. Erik Gustafsson set Berggren for a one-time from the flanks that sailed past Bobrovsky.

After Anton Lundell tied it for Florida at 11:01 of the opening period, the Wings regained the lead on Larkin's power-play goal, his 19th goal, on a pass from Kane at 7:52. But the Panthers again quickly tied it, with Evan Rodrigues scoring his ninth goal at 8:21.

But the Wings took control and sent Bobrovsky to the showers on the back-to-back goals by Kane and Kasper late in the second period.

Seeing young players like Berggren, Kasper, Simon Edvinsson and Joe Veleno contributing offensively during the win streak has been a positive note for McLellan.

"Very important," McLellan said. "You get excited about your first-round draft picks. All your draft picks, you pick them and they come and you're excited about them and you don't see a lot of negative aspects in their game. Then they get here and we figure them out a little bit.

"When they finally get here you hope they can fit in quickly and they can find ways to be productive. It's not always based on points that's the true reward of the individual. But be productive in contributing to a game and if you can be winning while they do, the process moves quicker."