Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals to lead the Florida Panthers to a 5-2 road win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday.
Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, Gustav Forsling and Eric Staal each scored and Sam Bennett had two assists for Florida (36-27-7, 79 points), which has won three straight.
Aleksander Barkov also added an assist, tallying his 614th point with the Panthers to become the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.
Pius Suter and Dylan Larkin scored for Detroit (30-30-9, 69 points), which has lost three straight.
The Panthers opened the scoring with 12:32 remaining in the first period, taking a 1-0 lead on a goal by Tkachuk.
After a giveaway in the Detroit zone by Lucas Raymond, Bennett took the puck in the middle of the ice and fed a pass to his right to Tkachuk, who buried the chance into an open net.
Florida took a 2-0 lead with 7:32 remaining in the first on a goal by Verhaeghe, who skated to a loose puck in the middle of the ice at the top of the faceoff circles and blasted a shot past Detroit goalie Ville Husso.
Just 2:09 later, the Red Wings cut the Florida lead to 2-1 when Suter poked a loose puck that was sitting in the crease into an open net.
With 8:27 remaining in the second period, Florida regained a two-goal lead on a goal by Forsling, who fired a shot from top of the left faceoff circle that got past Husso to make it 3-1 Panthers.
Detroit then made it 3-2 with 13:07 remaining in the third on a goal by Larkin. During a delayed penalty, he took a pass from Raymond and ripped a shot from a sharp angle that went past Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Florida got an insurance goal with 3:52 left when Staal scored on a two-on-one breakaway to make it 4-2 Panthers.
Verhaeghe then added a power-play goal with 1:23 remaining in the game to complete the scoring.
–Field Level Media
