Cam Talbot made 32 saves to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 win over the visiting Florida Panthers on Sunday.
The Red Wings (36-33-7, 79 points) won for the third time in four games and stayed in the hunt for the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Alex DeBrincat and J.T. Compher scored for the Red Wings, who have won both regular-season meetings so far against the Panthers.
Anton Lundell scored the lone goal of the game for the Panthers (44-29-4, 92 points), who have lost five straight and failed to score more than two goals in all of those games.
Florida decided to rest leading scorer Sam Reinhart and fourth-leading scorer Sam Bennett for the game after both played on Saturday in Ottawa.
Detroit opened the scoring on a power play with 15:23 remaining in the second on a goal by DeBrincat, who took a cross-ice from Lucas Raymond and snapped a shot from the left faceoff circle that went underneath the crossbar on the far side.
Detroit then took a 2-0 lead with 8:37 remaining in the second on a goal by Compher. He skated in on a two-on-one and beat Florida goalie Vitek Vaneck to the glove side with a wrist shot.
Florida pulled Vaneck with around 2:30 remaining, and finally broke through when Lundell scored to make it 2-1 Detroit with 39.9 seconds left.
The Panthers gained possession again in Detroit’s zone but couldn’t get the equalizer against Talbot. The best chance came when Lundell one-timed a shot from the right circle toward a half-open net in the waning seconds, but Talbot slid across the crease to stop the puck before it went in.
Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves in defeat for Florida.
–Field Level Media
