Panthers Turn Jeers to Cheers in a Hurry, Rally to beat Wings

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SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers looked disheveled for the first 40 minutes Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings. 

But the lethargic play in the first two periods was outshined by a dominant third, as the Panthers scored four unanswered goals in the final 21 minutes to overcome a three-goal deficit and take down the Red Wings 5-4 at Amerant Bank Arena.

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Florida entered the contest hoping to build off Tuesday’s 4-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets with the struggling Red Wings in town.

Detroit, which lost four straight games entering the night, was the better team for much of Thursday and looked prime to win only its second game in the past seven.

Coincidentally, Detroit’s previous win came back on Nov. 2 — in Sunrise against the Panthers. 

The Red Wings not only blew their chance, but they know it, too.

”Momentum’s a funny thing in sport,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said postgame. “We had all of it until the goal at the end of the second period.”

The Panthers started off on the right foot Thursday, taking a 1-0 lead just 3:52 into the first period after Sam Reinhart scored his 11th goal of the season and 200th goal with the Panthers.  

Early momentum from Reinhart’s goal didn’t last long however. Just 15 seconds later, J.T Compher broke through the neutral zone and scored on a breakaway to tie the game with his 3rd goal of the season. 

Detroit scored three more unanswered goals between the first and second periods to jump out to a commanding 4-1 lead late in the middle frame. 

Merely seconds away from heading to the second intermission with a 4-1 lead, the Red Wings gave the Panthers just an inch of hope after defenseman Gus Forsling scored with a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle with 18 seconds to go in the second period, making it a 4-2 game. 

Off the back of Forsling’s late goal, the Panthers came out for the third period with the juice that eluded them for much of the game. 

“We got 20 minutes and all we need is one to tilt this thing,” Paul Maurice said of the team’s mindset headed into the third period. “So leave it all in the locker room in terms of your last two periods and bring out the third period.”

Anton Lundell scored his first of two goals on the night 2:32 into the third, sneaking a puck past goalie John Gibson right after the Red Wings killed off a penalty. 

With the Panthers down one, Lars Eller found the equalizer. The 37-year-old veteran tied the game at 4-4 with 3:31 to play in regulation by batting in Niko Mikkola’s goal-line pass out of the air for his third goal of the season. 

The once angrisome Panthers crowd, who showered a few boos toward the home team in the second period, were now on their feet with elation as the Panthers scored three-unanswered goals.

”What are we? 5-2 [at home]. Pretty tough around here,” Maurice said, shrugging off the boos.

“We’ll be all right. So will the fans.”

A falling Brady Tkachuk wired a backhand pass through four Red Wings players before hitting the ice and finding an open Lundell, who ripped away his second of the night and the game winner just 51 seconds after Eller tied it. 

“I felt like we were in the game, we played well,” Lundell said. “They’re a good team… They score their goals from their chances. So that gave us belief that we just got to keep going.”

The Panthers improved to 11-7-2, 5-2-0 at home and most notably, they won their first game against an Atlantic Division opponent after starting 0-4-0. 

Now, once again, the road awaits.

The Panthers were coming off three straight on the road, flew home Wednesday, played Thursday and now fly out again Friday with a back-to-back in St. Louis (Saturday) and Dallas (Sunday) to come.

Maurice certainly considered Florida’s sloppy play in the first two periods to road weariness.

“We were behind the game in a lot of ways, but it was just the continuation of an exceptionally long road trip,” Maurice said. “We fly in the day before the game, we play, then we fly out (Friday). You are probably going to have five, six games like that a year where you are behind it, and before you know it, you are eating a couple of bad breaks.”

He expects a better start in St. Louis.

“That’s,’’ he said, “usually how these games pan out.’’

ON DECK: GAME No. 21FLORIDA PANTHERS at ST. LOUIS BLUES

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