Panthers get 3 goals in the 2nd period, top Red Wings 4-1

Brad Marchand got his first Florida goal to cap a three-goal second period, and the Panthers rallied to beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Thursday night for their second consecutive win.

Mackie Samoskevich and Evan Rodrigues also scored in the second, and Aleksander Barkov scored with 5:57 left for the Panthers — getting to 20 goals for the 10th consecutive season.

Alex DeBrincat scored for Detroit, which fell to 6-13-1 in its last 20 games.

The win was the 915th regular-season victory for Panthers coach Paul Maurice, breaking a tie with Barry Trotz for outright possession of third place on the NHL list.

Takeaways

Red Wings: DeBrincat’s goal was the 250th of his career and 63rd in two seasons with Detroit. He still has a chance to be Detroit’s first 40-goal scorer since Marian Hossa in 2008-09. Since then, 26 franchises have had at least one instance of someone scoring 40 goals.

Panthers: Aaron Ekblad (suspended until Game 3 of playoff Round 1) joined the team for morning skate Thursday, his first team work since being suspended 20 games without pay for violating the terms of the league’s Performance Enhancing Substances Program.

Key moment

Marchand got a standing ovation from many in the crowd when his goal was announced.

Key stat

Detroit led 1-0 after one period before Florida rallied. The Panthers were 0-5-1 in their last six games when they conceded the first goal, and 4-12-1 in their last 17 games when trailing after the first period.

Up next

Detroit visits Tampa Bay on Friday, the second time this week the Lightning will host a team that played at Florida the previous night. Florida plays host to Buffalo on Saturday — and like Toronto did and Detroit will, the Sabres will also go to Tampa one day after playing in Sunrise.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL