In Detroit, Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves for the visiting Florida Panthers and defeated the Red Wings, 3-2, in overtime on Saturday night.
Aleksi Heponiemi struck for the winner at 2:45 of the extra session.
“It’s just an amazing feeling,” Heponiemi said. “After the first couple nervous shifts, I was just enjoying the ice time, but [Panthers coach Joel Quenneville] putting me out there for an important moment means a lot.”
The Panthers improved to 4-0-1.
“He’s (Heponiemi) got great instincts,” Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville said. “It was a great play by [Duclair] to get it across to him, but he has great hands, and that was a great finish.”
Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi were the Red Wings strikers, Detroit dropped to 2-5-2.
“I thought we were better tonight 5-on-5,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “They had some moments and the chances were probably about even, but we were way better tonight. We lost the game on special teams.”
Aleksander Barkov and Keith Yandle scored for the Panthers in regulation.
“It is huge to get points in a shortened season,” Yandle said. ‘You have to find ways to win games, whether it is in regulation or overtime. Those points could be very important at the end of the season.”
Thomas Greiss made 23 saves. in the loss.
“[Blashill] has told us since the first day of (training) camp that power-play time is a privilege, and that’s exactly how it should be,” Detroit’s Dylan Larkin said. “We haven’t been good enough, so we were watching from the bench. It was definitely a good lesson for me.”
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