Wings lose Abdelkader, fall in overtime to Florida (with photos)
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – Atlantic Division foes Detroit and Florida entered Thursday night with the exact same 11-10-2 records.
At the end of the night, it was the Panthers who took their 12th win of the season, as they topped the Red Wings in overtime, 2-1. Aleksander Barkov potted the game-winning goal in overtime, while Roberto Luongo stopped 20 shots in the win. Henrik Zetterberg scored Detroit’s only goal, and Petr Mrazek was sharp in goal, as he turned away 28 of 30 shots.
“They outplayed us, certainly in one area because we turned too many pucks over,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought the second period was not very good at all in terms of turning pucks over. We turned pucks over, and we turn them over again; you can’t win like that. I thought we were immature in our game in terms of that and in terms of making sure we stay above people in terms of short shifts… We’ve got to be better than that.”
With six players currently injured already, the Red Wings lost Justin Abdelkader in the first period to make matters worse, as he went into the boards awkwardly, flexed his leg on the bench after and then left the game with a lower-body injury.
“He’s a force for us every night,” Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall said of Abdelkader. “He’s one of those guys that wears his heart on his sleeve and just does it right out there. Of course it’s a big loss… hopefully we’ll be back soon.
“Some years, that’s just the way it goes. You can’t feel sorry for yourselves. You just got to look at the guy next to you and say, ‘We’re gonna do this together.’ Every time someone goes down, that’s another opportunity for someone else to grab a little more ice time, so we have to do it together, but again, it comes down to doing it right and we didn’t do that tonight. ”
Blashill had no immediate update, but said he doesn’t think Abdelkader will miss much time. He added that the team may call someone up, but that they have a “real good player” in Drew Miller as an option.
Just 1:23 into the game, the Red Wings captain struck first.
Zetterberg capitalized on a turnover in the Florida zone, turned and fired a backhander top shelf over Luongo from the high slot. Zetterberg extended his team lead with this 16th point of the season in the process.
Little Caesars alum Vincent Trocheck, who has six goals and ten points in nine career games against Detroit, thought he had yet another one against the Wings with his seventh goal of the season at 14:49 of the period, but after a Detroit challenge, it was ruled the play was offsides entering the zone.
Panthers defenseman Jason Demers made sure the next one that beat Mrazek actually counted.
Off a face-off in the Detroit zone following a Wings minor penalty, Demers took a pass at the right point, stepped in and blasted a low slap shot that ramped up off Danny DeKeyser’s stick and over Mrazek to tie the game.
That’s how things stood after not just the opening period, but the second and third frames, as well – largely thanks to Mrazek, who continues to thrive since taking over for the injured Jimmy Howard.
“Petr was excellent tonight,” Blashill said. “Not only is he playing well, but he’s looking good doing it, so that’s a real positive sign for us.”
The game took extra time to find a winner. The Wings had the first quality scoring chance of overtime, as Mantha and Zetterberg nearly connected for a Red Wings win.
But shortly after, it was Barkov who capitalized on a Detroit turnover and beat Mrazek with a forehand-backhand move to seal the victory for the Panthers.
“In general, what happens is you get a real chance for and then it goes the other way and they get a real chance for; that’s why 3-on-3 is so exciting,” Blashill said. “In this particular case, we gave a puck away we shouldn’t have given away and we had a bad change. That one was certainly defendable.”