Red Wings fall to Panthers at home Saturday night
By Stefan Kubus –
DETROIT – Jimmy Hayes and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Florida, as the Panthers came into Joe Louis Arena Saturday night and handed Detroit its 11th loss at home on the year, a 2-1 decision.
Dan Cleary scored his second of the year for Detroit, who fell to 15-9-7 on the year. Jonas Gustavsson suffered his first regulation loss on the year, while Davison native Tim Thomas turned aside 22 of 23 shots on the night for Florida, who improved to 9-16-5.
“We didn’t have our legs early, but we were still in the game; that’s the frustrating thing about it,” Cleary said. “We’ve just got to execute a little bit better. We had a couple power-plays late that were just not Red Wing-like. We were just missing passes and looked like we didn’t have a sense of urgency.”
It was the second of back-to-back games for Detroit, having won in New Jersey Friday night before quickly turning around to face Florida on Saturday at home. Head coach Mike Babcock said his squad looked lethargic, but also that playing two nights in a row can’t be used as an excuse.
“You try to fight through it the best you possibly can. We had a game last night, they sat in our building and hung out, waiting for us. There’s no excuse for it, you’ve got to find ways to win games.”
“Real good goaltending, too. We got real good saves… We got through the second period with goaltending and we talked about being mentally tough enough to find a way to fight through in the third and we didn’t get it done.”
Cleary opened the scoring, banging home a rebound off a Justin Abdelkader backhand, for the 1-0 lead just minutes into the game. For Cleary, that’s his second goal of the year and first since Oct. 14, a 3-2 win in Boston.
“It’s been trying, that’s for sure,” Cleary said of finally scoring again. “You’ve just got to stay positive. It’s something that you can build off.”
Early in the second stanza, Jimmy Hayes evened things up, jamming in a puck underneath Gustavsson’s pad as he made the initial save on former Red Wing Shawn Matthias.
Though the Red Wings kept Florida off the scoreboard for the remainder of the second period, Florida dominated, having outshot Detroit 14-6 in the period with 26-14 advantage after 40 minutes.
“We stopped skating, I don’t think it’s got anything to do with the energy,” Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “Obviously, we have to be a lot more desperate and determined than that. We stopped skating and started watching hockey instead of playing.”
At 3:29 of the third period, Jonathan Huberdeau scored his seventh of the year, making a nifty forehand-backhand move to beat Gustavsson for the 2-1 lead.
Thomas steadied the ship the rest of the way to keep Detroit off the board en route to the victory.
“It was a one-goal game, so it’s a matter of who scores the next is going to have a big advantage and he stepped up a few times when they needed him,” Gustavsson said of his counterpart Thomas. “He’s showed it before, he’s a really good goalie.”