SUNRISE, Fla. – Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals to lift the Florida Panthers over the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Brett Connolly scored his 100th NHL goal and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored a goal for the Panthers, who have won three straight games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves.
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“We did what we were hoping for,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had a great start, a lot of pace, good puck movement, everybody involved in the flow, good rush attack. Huby scoring early certainly helped. There were some really good things that happened early in the game.”
The Panthers had lost three consecutive games and lost some key players to injury, such as Aleksander Barkov and Patric Hornqvist.
“The team has been doing well,” Verhaeghe said. “We’re on a three-game win streak here, which is nice after a three-game losing streak, and it shows the resilience of the team for sure.”
Filip Zadina scored for the Red Wings. Calvin Pickard allowed three goals on eight shots before being replaced by Thomas Greiss, who stopped 24 shots. The Red Wings have lost six consecutive road games.
Huberdeau’s goal came 17 seconds in to make the score 1-0. Verhaeghe and Connolly scored 58 seconds apart, making the score 3-0 and chasing Pickard from the game at 12:25 of the first.
“It’s as bad as we’ve played defensively in a while,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “We weren’t at our best. We had a bunch of guys that played their ‘B’ and ‘C’ games. We need everybody on their ‘A’ game every night.”
Zadina’s power-play goal got the Red Wings within 3-1 with 12:31 left in the second.
“It took us too long to get into this game tonight,” Red Wings center Dylan Larkin said.
Verhaeghe’s second goal, a wraparound that went airborne and in at 12:11 of the second, stretched the Panthers lead to 4-1. Verhaeghe leads the Panthers with 17 goals.
“We had a great start, up 3-0, then we had some good composure and played our game,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s a great win. We keep building and it’s definitely fun.”
INJURIES
Panthers forward Anthony Duclair was driven into the boards in the final seconds of the second period and appeared to injure his shoulder. Duclair did not return and will miss 7 to 10 days, according to Quenneville.
Panthers D Aaron Ekblad underwent surgery on Monday for a fracture in his lower extremities and is expected to be out of the lineup for 12 weeks. Ekblad, 25, sustained his injury during the second period of Florida’s game against the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
Panthers: Noah Juulsen: out (undisclosed), Patric Hornqvist: out (undisclosed), Aleksander Barkov: day to day (lower body).
Red Wings: Jonathan Bernier: day to day (lower body), Bobby Ryan: day to day (upper body), Marc Staal: day to day (upper body).
ATTENDANCE
The Panthers cap attendance at 25% capacity. Tuesday’s game drew 4,321.
UP NEXT
The teams play the second of their two-game set on Thursday.