Brandon Montour lead the way with three points for the Panthers

The Florida Panthers hit the road to start their three-game road trip from Little Cesar’s Arena in Detroit after sweeping their most recent homestand at 3-0-0. The last time they were on the road, their 11-game road winning streak had come to an end in Raleigh.

Going into Saturday’s action, Florida came in comfortably with the best record in the NHL at 40-16-4, while the Red Wings entered the day in the first wild card spot in the eastern conference, in hopes to end their seven-year playoff drought.

After a game that saw multiple four-on-four’s, double minors, and 10-minutes misconducts, Florida cruised to a 4-0 win in the Motor City behind Brandon Montour’s three points (one goal, two assists) and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 21 shots that he faced to earn his second shutout against Detroit this season, his fourth of the season. 

In the opening frame, neither team was able to light the lamp. Both teams combined for three shots in the first 10 minutes.

The best chance for Detroit came with a two-on-one led by Patrick Kane and Lucas Raymond. With Bobrovsky at the top of his crease and Gustav Forsling sliding to break up the centering feed, the puck became loose. There was a bit of daylight for Raymond as he had an open net for a split second, but Aaron Ekblad followed up with a slide of his own and blocked the shot to keep it scoreless

Panthers were able to tilt the ice in after Detroit killed the Panthers first power play. The best chance came when Sam Reinhart retrieved the puck in the slot, and after Montour’s redirection was saved. In that same sequence, Alex Lyon was down on his stomach, Montour hit the post on the second opportunity and could not give the Panthers the lead late in the first.

The first period had a bit of physicality after Michael Rasmussen collided with Bobrovsky, which caused a Detroit goal by David Perron to come off the board immediately to due goaltender interference. Later in the period after Florida stopped a short-handed breakaway by Detroit, Perron and Sam Bennett both went to the penalty box for roughing.

The Panthers were the first to get on the board at 8:50 of the second period. Moments before Montour had an opportunity after Bennett fed him off the rush, but could not find the back of the net.

Montour then nailed a stretch pass to Anton Lundell and after a give-and-go with Evan Rodrigues, the shot was saved by Lyon and Montour scored off the rebound as he trailed the play. Montour never broke stride after hitting the stretch pass from the blue line.

Minutes later, Florida extended their lead to two. After Montour’s shot missed the net and hit the end boards, Aleksander Barkov then retrieved the puck at the far side corner and quickly fed it between the circles to Reinhart where his one-timer hit Jeff Petry’s stick and went in bar down with a second left on the power play. His 42^nd goal of the season and 24^th on the power play.

A scrum would commence immediately after the goal, where Matthew Tkachuk (unsportsmanlike conduct) and Ben Chiarot (roughing) both went to the box and both teams played four-on-four.

Best chance of the period came with Kane on a solo breakaway. Bobrovsky got the left pad down as Kane attempted to go to his backhand through Bobrovsky’s legs as he went for the poke check.

Through 40 minutes, there were three four-on-four’s due to post whistle scrums, but no goals against for Florida as they were hoping to add on to their 27-0-3 record when leading after two periods.

Detroit came in with the league lead in third period comebacks, so the third period was going to be another test as Florida played in five straight one-goal games prior to Saturday.

The Panthers added some insurance within the first five minutes of the third period. Detroit failed to clear the puck out of their zone, Eetu Luostarinen fought off a check by Petry, causing his stick to break. Luostarinen from the near side corner centered back, fed Rodrigues at the top of the right-wing circle and his one-timer hit off the shoulder of Lyon and into the back of the net at 4:39 of the third period.

First year Panther in Rodrigues now has nine multi-point games this season.

Frustration for Detroit continued as the Panther were given a four-minute power play. Battling at the blue line, Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman slashed and rough up Forsling to earn himself a 10-minute misconduct as well.

Florida would capitalize 17 seconds into the first part of the double minor. Carter Verhaeghe received the puck from the blue line, and his wrist shot got through Lyon with a screen in front by Barkov.

Montour had the primary assist for his third point of the afternoon, now with 13 points (four goals and nine assists) in his last 7 games.

The physicality continued as both Ryan Lomberg was assessed a double minor for roughing. He and Robby Fabbri were assessed a 10-minute misconducts with less than four minutes to go in the game.

Florida showed no signs of slowing down as they led the third period shot 16-6. 

Florida improved to 41-16-4 after shutting out Detroit for the second time this season (their fifth shutout overall), both on the road at Little Cesar’s Arena. They also brought their league best road record to 21-8-2.

After starting their three-game road trip strong, the Panthers will now pay a visit to Madison Square Garden as they will take on the Metropolitan Division leading New York Rangers on Monday night in a battle of two of the best teams in the east. 

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