Red Wings kept winless in loss to Panthers

 

By Jonathan Cochran –

The Red Wings are still seeking their first win of the season after they lost to the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Saturday night in Sunrise.

Vincent Trocheck, Colton Sceviour, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Marchessault all scored for the Panthers, who improved to 2-0-0-0 on the season.

Darren Helm scored the lone goal for the Wings, who went winless in their season-opening two-game road trip in Florida after falling 6-4 to the Lightning Thursday night.

“We got on our heels early, gave up those two goals, but we can’t keep giving up free opportunities like that,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said via NHL.com. “It’s nonsensical. We spent most of the first and second not being quickest to the puck. Their second guy beat our second guy to too many pucks. We’ve got to be way better than that.”

Petr Mrazek stopped 34 of the 37 shots sent his way; his record now stands at 0-2-0-0 on the season. Roberto Luongo turned aside 21 of 22 Detroit shots in the contest.

Both teams were held scoreless on two power-play opportunities.

Florida set the tone early on with a goal from Trocheck just over a minute into the game; the Little Caesars, Saginaw Spirit and Plymouth Whalers alum scored on a wraparound that bounced off an unlucky Dylan Larkin’s skate and into the net.

Midway through the first, Sceviour added onto the Panthers’ lead with an impressive wrist shot just under the glove of Petr Mrazek.

Three minutes later the Wings responded with a goal from Darren Helm. Thomas Vanek’s dogged efforts forced Panthers defenseman Jason Demers to turn the puck over to Gustav Nyquist, who fed a pass to an open Helm in front of the net.

The Panthers were on the verge of increasing their lead in the second period if not for the efforts of Mrazek, who made several key saves to keep the Panthers from adding to their total.

The Wings were out-shot 28-13 through two periods.

Detroit’s offensive woes continued into the third period as they added only nine more shots, none of which made it past Luongo.

Barkov sealed the Wings’ fate with a late third-period goal generated from a turnover in the defensive end by Danny DeKeyser.

Marchessault scored on an empty net shortly after to add to his two assists, giving him three points on the night.

Detroit will head home to face Ottawa in their final home opener at Joe Louis Arena on Monday.