A rough night in net led to an early exit for Sergei Bobrovsky.
And it also led to the Panthers losing in regulation to the Detroit Red Wings for the first time in nearly four years.
Detroit scored four goals — including three times on the power play — before Bobrovsky was pulled late in the second period of the Panthers’ 5-2 loss to the Red Wings on Thursday to begin a quick two-game homestand at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida falls to 26-17-3 and has lost seven of its past 11 games, with six of those defeats coming in regulation. It’s the Panthers’ first regulation loss to the Red Wings since Feb. 20, 2021. Florida had gone 12-0-1 against Detroit in the previous 13 meetings entering Thursday.
Bobrovsky gave up four goals on 15 shots against, including three power-play goals on just four shots when the Red Wings had the man advantage. Detroit (21-19-4), which has now won eight of its past nine games, received power-play goals from Jonatan Berggren, Dylan Larkin and Patrick Kane plus a breakaway goal from Marko Kasper that put Detroit up 4-2 with 4:19 left in the second period before Bobrovsky went to the bench. Spencer Knight stopped all four shots he faced in relief.
Over this 11-game stretch starting with their 4-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 23, the Panthers have been on the penalty kill an average of nearly four times per game and have just a 72.1 percent success rate (31 for 43) on the PK in that span.
“We’ve got to kill the penalties that we take,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “A tough night on the kill.”
Thursday marked the 11th time in 31 starts this season that Bobrovsky has given up at least four goals. For comparison, he had 10 such games last season in 58 regular-season starts en route to being a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.
-“I would leave Sergei any day, all day long in a game that we’ve got to come back and battle back,” Maurice said. “Sometimes, the guys get unlucky in the net, and when you get two deflections like that — he’s right, he’s positioning solid, and then it just comes through him — it’s not his night. You’re looking for a little change, a little bit of time on the bench. It’s not a reflection, certainly, how I feel, about him or how he plays for us. Sergei doesn’t get pulled very often. It wasn’t, ‘I’ve got to get him out of there for us to win the game.’”
Anton Lundell and Evan Rodrigues scored for the Panthers, with each goal tying the game before Detroit scored twice in a span of 1:56 late in the second period to take the lead for good. Larkin capped scoring with an empty-netter.
Cam Talbot stopped 41 of 43 shots he faced for Detroit, including going a perfect 23 for 23 in the third period.
At five-on-five, the Panthers had a 33-13 edge in shots on goal and 33-10 advantage over Detroit in scoring chances (including 12-7 in high-danger chances).
“At five-on-five, we were pretty good,” Rodrigues said. “I thought we played well. I thought we got away from it a little bit in the second [period]but [there were] a lot of special teams in the second, so we didn’t get to roll lines over and tilt the ice a little bit and then they capitalize on their chances. I think for the most part we played pretty well, but yeah, special team just killed us there.”
The Panthers wrap up the homestand on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks (6 p.m., Scripps) before starting a four-game West Coast trip next week.
Related News :