In Detroit, Chris Driedger made 30 saves for the Florida Panthers in a 7-2 thrashing of the Red Wings on Friday night.
The Panthers posted four first period goals to take full control of the game, and never let go.
“We were terrible,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said.
Bobby Ryan and Valtteri Filppula were the Detroit scorers.
“This just isn’t acceptable,” the Red Wings’ Frans Nielsen said. “I thought we were starting to figure out what it takes to win, but we were losing 1-on-1 battles all over the ice.”
Patric Hornqvist scred twice for the Panthers.
“We were all over them in the first period and we were rewarded,” Hornqvist said. “When we’re playing the right way, we’re as good as anyone, and we’re showing that right now.”
Juho Lammikko, MacKenzie Weegar and Hornqvist gave the Panthers a 3-0 lead.
“This was a good night,” Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville said after Florida scored a season high in goals. “We want to keep building off this, because the better we are playing, the more fun it is.”
Ryan stopped the surge, briefly, with a goal to make it 3-1.
Aleksander Barkov made it 4-1 before the end of the first period and Aaron Ekblad stretched the lead to 5-1 in the middle frame.
Anthony Duclair put the final dagger to the Red Wings with a late score.
“We had all four lines rolling and buzzing around out there tonight,” Duclair said. “It’s good to see that kind of offense from all those guys.”
Thomas Greiss got the start and never made it the second period, he yielded four goals and made nine saves in 20 minutes of play.
Jonathan Bernier made 23 saves through final two periods of the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.