Florida Panthers
Motor Cats: Florida Panthers 3, Detroit Red Wings 2 (SO)
SUNRISE — A couple of Lyon King signs, the ones which celebrated Detroit Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon when he backstopped the Florida Panthers to the playoffs at this time last year, remain inside the arena to this day.
Lyon continues to shine in Sunrise.
On Saturday, the former Panthers goalie flummoxed his former team again — only Sasha Barkov scored twice in the third and Florida pulled out a 3-2 win in a shootout.
Lyon did all he could to snap his team’s four-game losing streak with 37 saves.
Florida now has 13 straight games with a point (12-0-1) against Detroit.
Saturday, despite missing Dylan Larkin for the entire first period, Detroit took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal from Robby Fabbri at 10:31.
The Panthers, which had not won a home game since March 9 against Calgary, threw everything it had at Lyon — but, on this day, he was hard to beat.
Lyon, despite his game Saturday, now has a personal 10-game (0-8-2) losing streak.
That’s because Barkov got a couple of strange goals in the third before Larkin tied the score on a 4-on-3 power play with four minutes left.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all three shots faced in the shootout; Sam Reinhart was the only shooter on either team to score.
GOALS OF THE GAME
- Wings 1, Panthers 0 (10:31, 1st PP): David Perron sent a nice cross-ice feed to a waiting Robby Fabbri who one-timed it from the right circle.
- Panthers 1, Wings 1 (12:21, 3rd): Aaron Ekblad got out of the penalty box, drove in with the puck but had it taken away. The puck landed on the stick of Sasha Barkov, however, and he made it count.
- Panthers 2, Wings 1 (15:04, 3rd): Barkov charged in and was able to slip a bouncing puck off a Detroit defender and past Lyon to give Florida its first lead of the day.
- Wings 2, Panthers 2 (16:00, 3rd PP): Dylan Larkin’s knuckleball shot on a 4-on-3 power play hit Sergei Bobrovsky in the shoulder and goes in.
- Panthers 3, Wings 2 (1-0, shootout): Sam Reinhart was the only one to score as the Panthers finally get a home win.
FHN’S 3 STARS OF THE GAME
1. Sasha Barkov, Florida
2. Alex Lyon, Detroit
3. Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida
ON DECK
FLORIDA PANTHERS @ TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
- When: Monday, 7 p.m.
- Where: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto
- TV/Streaming: Bally Sports SUN/ESPN+
- Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
- This Season (Tied 1-1) — At Florida: Panthers 3, Leafs 1 (Oct. 19); April 16. At Toronto: Leafs 2, Panthers 1 (Nov. 28); Monday.
- Last Season: Toronto won Regular Season Series 3-1; Florida won Eastern Conference Semifinals 4-1
- All-time Regular Season Series: Toronto leads 49-37-7, 7 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday at Montreal, 7 p.m.