The Detroit Red Wings continued their at-home win streak tonight by defeating the Florida Panthers 4-2.

The first period started off with a bang! Andreas Athanasiou, the hero of the Ottawa game Wednesday night, scored the first goal of the night 42 seconds in. The assist came from Mike Green on a high flipped pass from the Red Wings zone.

The Panthers went 5-on-4 for a slashing penalty taken by Justin Abdelkader. Florida spent most of their power play cycling the puck around the Red Wings zone. They had some good shots, but Jimmy Howard made great saves without allowing any rebounds.

For the majority of the first period, the Wings struggled to get the puck out off their own zone. Aaron Ekblad had a good scoring chance late in the period, but his stick got tangled up in his skates. He rang the puck off the crossbar.

The Wings had some scoring chances in the first and finished the period with the only goal. The shots were 13 – 5 in favor of the Panthers.

The second period was off to a good start with the Wings getting 2 shots in the first minute. However, the Panthers still kept control for the majority of the first half. Then, Tomas Tatar scored the 2nd goal of the night. It was a beauty that was assisted by Andreas Athanasiou and Dylan Larkin. Tatar had a wide open net and buried the puck off Athanasiou’s pass.

The control shifted to the Wings after that goal. The controversial non-goal of the game came towards the end of the period. Jonathan Ericsson shot the puck towards the goal which deflected off Justin Abdelkader, went up and landed on James Reimer’s number and into the net. The goal was quickly under review to see which part of Abdelkader’s equipment the puck was deflected off. After several minutes, it was deemed a no goal due to a high stick.

With 2.3 seconds left in the game, Mike Matheson scored the first goal for the Panthers as he blew past Mike Green for a breakaway.

The Panthers tied the game at 3:19 in the 3rd from an Aleksander Barkov wrist shot. The Red Wings then had two power plays within a minute of each other. They couldn’t capitalize on the first power play mostly due to the Panthers penalty kill which is one of the best in the league.

The Wings got their lead back with seconds left on their second power play. Mike Green created the perfect play, setting up Martin Frk who shot the puck. It was deflected into the net by Anthony Mantha. That is the first power play goal allowed by the Panthers in 7 games.

The Red Wings kept control for the majority of the third with Howard making some amazing saves. With the Panthers in the Wings zone, Henrik Zetterberg saw Gustav Nyquist towards the blue line and sent the puck towards him giving Nyquist a breakaway and a goal going 5-hole. That play gave Zetterberg his 600th career assist.

The Panthers pulled James Reimer with more than 2 minutes left in the third, hoping to close the gap. The play went 4-on-4 for the last 2 minutes with the Panthers pulling Reimer again giving them the 1 man advantage. Green sent a high puck towards Darren Helm who passed to Frans Neilsen and scored an empty-net goal. The goal was quickly called back after an off-side review.

The clock winds down and the Detroit Red Wings win 4-2 in regulation.

The Panthers controlled most of the play for the game, not allowing the Wings many chances. Jimmy Howard is the main reason why the Panthers weren’t able to capitalize.

Jimmy Howard was the clear MVP of this game. Without his great saves, the Panthers could have been up by 5 goals at one stage in this game. He continues to make this amazing saves and is one of the main reasons why Detroit is currently on a winning streak.

The Wings take on the number 1 Tampa Bay Lightning at the Joe Louis Arena on Sunday, January 7th, 2018. The Lightning are currently 7-2-1 in their last 10. This game will be a real test for the Wings.