The results are starting to go the Florida Panthers way again.
Florida scored four unanswered goals on Thursday, skating to an impressive 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Amerant Bank Arena.
A strong start to the game by Florida was snuffed out when the Red Wings scored a quick goal on a seemingly harmless play.
Dylan Larkin carried the puck behind the Panthers net and made a perfectly timed pass to Alex DeBrincat, who snapped a one-timer past Sergei Bobrovsky to put the Wings up 1-0 at the 6:13 mark.
That’s how the score would remain until the second period, when the Panthers started finding the back of the net.
With Florida on the power play, Evan Rodrigues took a pass from Nate Schmidt at the left faceoff circle and drove to the net, powering the puck past Cam Talbot to tie the score at one.
About five minutes later, Gus Forsling found Mackie Samoskevich in the slot and the rookie spun around before wiring a shot past Talbot to give Florida their first lead of the game.
A quick passing play up the ice led to the Cats’ next goal.
Eetu Luostarinen sent a cross-ice pass to Uvis Balinskis entering Detroit’s zone, and he quickly found Brad Marchand driving the slot.
Marchand flipped the puck over Talbot’s glove for his first since joining the Panthers, sending the Cats into the second intermission with a 3-1 lead.
Florida captain Sasha Barkov decided to get in on the fun, deflecting a shot by Seth Jones past Talbot with just under six minutes left in the game, cementing the victory for Florida.
On to Buffalo.
QUICK THOUGHTS
This was the first time since March 8th Florida scored four goals.
Rodrigues’ goal, his 15th of the season, was his first since March 1, snapping a 17-game goal drought.
Forsling logged a pair of assists, giving him eight points over his past 11 games.
Barkov’s goal was his 20th of the season. He’s scored at least 20 goals in 10 straight seasons for the Panthers.
Uvis Balinskis logged a pair of assists, his first points in 15 games and his first multi-point outing since Dec. 30 against the Rangers.
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