Glendening, Datsyuk Help Red Wings Come Back To Beat Panthers, 5-3
PAUL GEREFFI
Associated Press
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Luke Glendening scored the go-ahead goal, Pavel Datsyuk had two goals and the Detroit Red Wings rebounded from a two-goal deficit and topped the Florida Panthers 5-3 on Saturday night.
Dylan Larkin had a goal and an assist, Tomas Tatar also scored and Niklas Kronwall recorded two assists for the Red Wings, who got 23 saves from Jimmy Howard.
The Red Wings won their second straight and lead the Philadelphia Flyers by three points for the final wild-card spot in the Atlantic Division. The Flyers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 earlier Saturday.
Teddy Purcell, Vincent Trocheck and Nick Bjugstad scored, and Roberto Luongo made 25 saves for the Panthers, who lost for the first time in three games.
Glendening broke a 3-3 tie when he was able to deflect a shot by Larkin from the point and the puck landed just across the goal line in the corner of the net at 8:39 of the third.
An empty-net goal by Datsyuk with 37 seconds left made it 5-3.
Trailing 3-1, the Red Wings closed within a goal on a power-play score by Datsyuk with 11 seconds left in the second. The puck trickled past Luongo through traffic in front. Luongo angrily threw the puck and claimed he was interfered with by Justin Abdelkader, who was standing near the goal line when the puck went in.
Larkin tied it at 3 when his wrist shot from the right circle got inside the post on Luongo's glove side with 16:08 left in the third.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead when Jiri Hudler passed to Bjugstad in the slot and his shot bounced off Howard's pad and into the net with 9:11 left in the first. The goal was Bjugstad's third in four games.
Detroit tied it on Tatar's tip-in on a power play. Brad Richards fired a shot from above the left circle and Tatar tipped it past Luongo with 1:35 left in the first.
Trocheck's goal gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead. Jussi Jokinen took the puck away from Datsyuk near the blue line and passed it to Trocheck in the high slot. Trockeck backhanded the puck between Howard's pads at 7:08 of the second. Trocheck has recorded 15 points in his last 16 games, and Jokinen's assist gave him 15 points over his last 13 games.
Purcell stretched the Panthers lead to 3-1 when he knocked in a rebound of his initial shot at 12:48 of the second. The goal was the 100th of Purcell's career.
NOTES: Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey attended the game. The Panthers honor the star of each winning game with a "Spacey-in-Space" hooded sweatshirt featuring Spacey's head floating in space. ... Panthers D Jakub Kindl faced his former team for the first time since the Red Wings traded him to the Panthers on Feb. 27. ... Panthers D Eric Gudbranson missed his third game with a lower-body injury. ... Kronwall returned for the Red Wings after missing three games with a sprained right knee. ... The start of the game was slightly delayed when an octopus was thrown on the ice just before the puck drop. ... Attendance was 20,817, a franchise record for a regular-season game.
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