Panthers' Luongo Expected To Return Against Red Wings
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DETROIT (CBSMiami/AP) – After suffering a tough defeat on Monday in Columbus, the Florida Panthers will try to bounce back against one of the league's original six teams.
The Detroit Red Wings have embraced the quirks of one of the league's oldest buildings. With the results they've gotten there lately, it's not difficult to see why they're holding Joe Louis Arena in such favorable regard.
The Red Wings will seek their first five-game win streak in three seasons and a ninth victory in 11 home games Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers, who will likely get goaltender Roberto Luongo back.
Detroit endured a 33-minute delay in Sunday's game against Vancouver due to a minor power outage at Joe Louis, which opened in 1979-80.
"That's the beauty of the Joe," defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. "It's been around for a long time. It's kind of the charm of it. You never know what's going to happen."
That had little effect on the Red Wings, who are set to move into a new building in 2017-18, as they held off the Canucks for a 5-3 victory. Pavel Datsyuk sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final minute, his second goal of the game.
Detroit (14-5-5) will next seek to win five in a row in one season for the first time since a six-game run from Feb. 8-19, 2012.
The Red Wings have earned three of their four consecutive wins at Joe Louis and are 8-1-1 in the last 10 games there.
Despite their home success, the Red Wings are 1-1-2 in their last four against Florida (9-7-6) in Detroit. Each of the past four have been decided by one goal or in a shootout.
The Red Wings blew a two-goal lead in the final six minutes of regulation in the most recent home matchup against the Panthers, a 5-4 shootout loss Jan. 26.
The Panthers, 2-3-3 in their last eight road games, fell short of a season-high third straight overall win with a 2-1 loss in Columbus on Monday. It was the third time in four games Florida has scored just one goal, but it won 1-0 over Carolina on Wednesday. It has allowed four goals total in the past three games.
"We're not going to win many games if we're that flat," coach Gerard Gallant said. "Detroit's a really good hockey team. They've won a bunch in a row, and they're one of the top teams in our conference. We have to start moving our feet and skating again on the forecheck."
Luongo is expected to return after leaving the win over Carolina with an arm injury. He's 2-1-1 with a 1.92 goals-against average in his last four games but has a 5.04 GAA in three consecutive losses to Detroit.
Luongo took an 8-3 defeat in his most recent visit to Joe Louis on Feb. 24, 2013, while with Vancouver.
Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader, day-to-day with an ailing shoulder, is expected to miss this game. He's tied for third on the team with 15 points and has seven goals.
Gustav Nyquist will try to pick up the slack by extending a three-game goal scoring streak against Florida.
The Panthers' Sean Bergenheim has four goals in his last four games against Detroit, but scored only one of those on Jimmy Howard, 2-0-1 with a 1.26 GAA in three career matchups versus Florida.
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