Joel Quenneville called the Florida Panthers’ back-to-back wins against the Dallas Stars over the weekend two of the most rewarding he could have asked for. The Panthers were without Aleksander Barkov and Patric Hornqvist, lost Aaron Ekblad to a scary leg injury in the second and didn’t necessarily play their cleanest offensive games, and they still managed to end a season-worst losing streak by winning two in a row under stressful circumstances.
Their 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday should qualify, too.
Florida — still playing without Barkov, Hornqvist and Ekblad — scored three goals in the first 12:25, chasing Red Wings goaltender Calvin Pickard from the game and sparking a lopsided win to open up a five-game homestand in Sunrise, Fla., despite being outshot for the third straight game and losing another major contributor to injury.
Anthony Duclair went down with an apparent left shoulder injury in the final seconds of the second period after Detroit goaltender Thomas Greiss tripped the winger, sending him flying into the boards and the crowd of 4,321 at the BB&T Center into a chorus of boos after another Panthers injury scare. Florida, already leading 4-1, held on to win after losing a key player to injury for the fourth time in the last week.
Jonathan Huberdeau, who had just one goal in his previous 11 games before scoring twice Sunday against the Stars, scored just 17 seconds into the game, then wingers Carter Verhaeghe and Brett Connolly scored just 58 seconds apart to knock Pickard out of the game with 7:35 remaining in the first period.
Verhaeghe, who scored his second career hat trick Saturday in Dallas, also scored in the second period and now has 16 goals to lead the Panthers (23-9-4) in his first season in Florida. Connolly’s goal was the 100th of his career, but only his second of the season.
Huberdeau and Sergei Bobrovsky — with 35 saves on 36 shots — still paced the short-handed Panthers, but Florida picked up a third straight win with the help of the newfound depth it has cultivated in this breakthrough season.
Huberdeau should have scored twice in the first five minutes. In the opening seconds, left wing Mason Marchment won a loose puck behind Detroit’s net and flung it to the front of the goal, where Huberdeau found it, dragged it across the crease and flipped a go-ahead goal past Pickard. Two minutes later, Huberdeau again came up with a puck in front of the net and held it long enough to force Pickard to fall, only to tap another potential goal off the post.
The rest of the explosive first period was handled by some of Florida’s most important new additions and unlikely contributors. Verhaeghe scored off an assist from Duclair — a connection by two linemates in their first season with the Panthers — and Connolly scored his when he deflected in a slap shot by defenseman Gustav Forsling, who landed in Florida just four days before the 2020-21 NHL season began in January.
Forsling’s increased workload was the Panthers’ newest lineup change Tuesday. On Sunday, Ekblad fractured a bone in his left leg when he landed awkwardly after taking a check against the boards in Florida’s win against the Stars. He had successful surgery on the injury Monday and will miss about 12 weeks, the Panthers announced Monday. Forsling, whom Florida claimed off waivers in the final days leading up to the season, moved up to join defenseman MacKenzie Weegar on the top defensive pairing in Ekblad’s place.
The Panthers, though, started with defensemen Riley Stillman and Anton Stralman, whom Florida actually placed on waivers Friday, but kept on its taxi squad when he went unclaimed. He was on the ice for Huberdeau’s goal and Verhaeghe’s first, which came when the Panthers turned defense into offense.
Duclair jumped on a loose puck and used his near-unmatched speed to beat the Red Wings (12-21-4) down the ice. He stopped on a dime just before he hit the red line, spun his body back toward the center of the ice and flipped a backhanded pass through three defenders to Verhaeghe, who put Florida ahead 2-0 with 8:33 left in the first period.
Less than a minute later, Forsling and Connolly stretched the lead to 3-0. Forsling was elevated to the top line in part because of his shooting ability — his 2.1 shots on goal per game are now most among active Panthers defensemen — and he sent another shot at Pickard less than a minute after he returned to the ice. Connolly set up in front of the net, rose his stick and redirected the puck past the goalie to stretch the lead, and send Pickard back to the bench.
Forsling was also on the ice for Verhaeghe’s goal in the second period, which came after a wraparound shot bounced over Greiss and across the goal line to push Florida’s lead back up to 4-1 less than five minutes after Detroit cut into the lead.
