DETROIT – Despite scoring four goals for the third straight game, Detroit was denied of its longest home-winning streak of this season Sunday afternoon.
Davison native Tim Thomas stopped Detroit’s Tomas Tatar, Daniel Alfredsson and Patrick Eaves in the shootout to seal a 5-4 victory for the Florida Panthers at Joe Louis Arena, ending Detroit’s two-game winning streak. Riley Sheahan, Gustav Nyquist, Tatar and Alfredsson scored for Detroit in regulation and Jonas Gustavsson made 33 saves in the loss.
“The bottom line is we didn’t keep the puck out of our net,” head coach Mike Babcock said. “The positive thing for us is we had young guys that were outstanding – really, really good.”
The line of Tatar, Sheahan and Tomas Jurco continued to thrive for Detroit, as they combined for two goals and three assists against the Panthers.
“We’ve got some chemistry going and we’ve been playing with each other for the last little bit now and played a little bit with each other in Grand Rapids, so we’ve got to know each other on the ice and it’s been working,” Sheahan said.
Tatar knows his linemates are trying to make an impression on Babcock and the coaching staff.
“Those guys are battling to stay here as long as they can and think, so far, they’ve proved that they will one day be in the NHL,” Tatar said.
Babcock continued to rave about those young players and ultimately said that once everyone is healthy, the best players will play, plain and simple. Joakim Andersson is expected back this week and Pavel Datsyuk could return as early as next weekend.
“What we’re going to do is talk about it and the best guys are going to play. It’s not going to have anything to do with age, it’s just going to do with what you’ve done here lately. They’re pushing real hard, Riley Sheahan, Tats, Jurco… that line was really good.”
Sean Bergenheim opened the scoring for Florida, the only goal of the first period. Bergenheim took a stretch pass from defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, broke in behind the Detroit defense and slid a backhand shot past Gustavsson for the 1-0 lead, just 1:48 into the game.
Babcock said he felt his team just wasn’t “emotionally engaged” to start the game.
“Structure is a great thing and work ethic, but if you’re not engaged emotionally in what you’re doing, if you’re not getting that little extra out of you… our group isn’t good enough to not be ultra-competitive. I think once we got competitive, things went well.”
And in the second period, Nyquist scored his ninth of the season, as he capitalized on a Drew Shore turnover in the Florida zone before he put the puck through Thomas’ five-hole, eight minutes in. That extended his goal streak to four games – longest for any Detroit player this season – and point streak to five games.
Alfredsson scored his 12th of the season just one minute and 19 seconds later for his second point in as many games back from injury, as he banged home a rebound off the end-boards right off the draw.
The line of Tatar, Sheahan and Jurco provided an energetic jolt to the lineup on Friday and Sunday, they got a chance to flex their offensive muscles some more as a power play unit. With Danny DeKeyser and Patrick Eaves on the point, that unit got some great chances early in the game, but capitalized at 18:15 of the second period with Bergenheim in the penalty box.
Tatar dished the puck down low at the right side of the net to Sheahan from the top of the right circle. Being a left-handed shot on the right side of the net with his back to Thomas, Sheahan pulled off a spin move to position himself for a forehand shot and managed to sneak one in to extend Detroit’s lead to 3-1 after 40 minutes.
It appeared Brendan Smith had a goal early in the third period with a wrist shot from the point, but it was immediately waved off as Dan Cleary was ruled to have interfered with Thomas in front.
Jesse Winchester banged home a rebound after a big scramble in front of Gustavsson at 9:12 of the third period to pull Florida within one, but Tatar – set up by Sheahan and Jurco – lit the lamp for his 12th of the year at 13:33 to regain the two-goal lead.
“We know each other well,” Tatar said of his linemates. “I think all three of us are really skilled, fast, young guys with lots of energy. I think we’re playing good right now and have to keep playing better and better.”
But Florida wasn’t packing it in, as a minute later, Drew Shore scored to pull the Panthers to within one goal again. And two minutes later, while shorthanded, veteran Brad Boyes broke down right wing and put one far side past Gustavsson to tie the game up, 4-4.
Overtime solved nothing, so it took a shootout, where Nick Bjugstad scored the only goal on either side, to decide a winner.
Despite failing to capture that third-consecutive win, Detroit did get a point and compiled a 3-1-1 record on the home stand.
“I’m pleased to be honest with you,” Babcock said. “You could’ve told me before the home stand that we were going to do that, I’d say, ‘Great.’
“I liked a lot of the things we did as a team and maybe it’s easier to not be as critical when you have so many young guys, but the reality is, I think our group is making progress. I like what I see from our guys, I like our competition level and our work ethic. Some execution at the end could’ve been better, but that’s part of being young.”