Detroit won 5-3 at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday night, scoring twice inside three quarters of a minute early in the third period to pull away from a game Florida never led. Daniil Tarasov won it against the organisation he played for last season. The result was Detroit’s third win in four games, and it ended Florida’s three-game run.
A game Florida led at no point
Carter Mazur opened the scoring at 5:26 of the first period, a wrist shot from the left circle off a Moritz Seider pass. Mazur is 24 and had been waiting 18 games for a first NHL goal. Sam Reinhart answered it at 14:19, taking a drop pass from Carter Verhaeghe in the slot after a Detroit turnover, and the period ended level.
Alex DeBrincat put Detroit back in front 86 seconds into the second period, finishing a three on one from Viktor Arvidsson’s cross-ice feed for his seventh goal of the season. Florida’s reply came while short-handed. Aaron Ekblad worked the puck from below the goal line at 15:25 and banked it off Tarasov for his first goal of the year, which left the game tied going into the intermission.
The third period broke it open.
The pair that decided it
Justin Faulk scored on the power play at 2:08 of the third, a shot from the point with Michael Rasmussen screening Jacob Markstrom. Michael Brandsegg-Nygard turned in a Lucas Raymond shovel pass 45 seconds after that, from the slot, and Detroit’s lead was two for the first time in the game. Florida pulled Markstrom with the deficit still at two and Sam Bennett redirected a Matthew Tkachuk pass with 3:20 remaining, but Emmitt Finnie found the empty net with three seconds left on the clock.
The goaltender against his old club, and a first goal
Tarasov spent last season in Florida’s organisation, and he made 23 saves on Monday against the club that had him on its books. Markstrom was at the other end for his first start since 17 October, having missed five games with an upper-body injury picked up in practice, and he made 24 saves.
Brandsegg-Nygard and Faulk each finished with a goal and an assist. Andrew Copp and Seider were credited with two assists apiece in the league’s own game summary, the only multi-assist nights on either side.
Detroit played the game without Dylan Larkin, who is serving a suspension, and without Marco Kasper, Mason Appleton and Simon Edvinsson. The attendance in Sunrise was 18,862.
Seventeen points, and an Atlantic Division packed into six
Detroit is 7-5-3 through 15 games and holds 17 points, a total that still leaves it tied for the fewest in the Atlantic Division, because eight teams in that division were separated by six points going into Monday. Inside that logjam the recent form matters more than the table does: Detroit has taken 6-2-1 from its past nine games.
Florida drops to 8-5-2. The two clubs meet three more times this season, at Sunrise again on 12 November and in Detroit on 12 December and 29 January, and Detroit now leads that series.
Tampa Bay on Tuesday, and a choice in goal
The second half of the Florida trip is at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m., with Detroit SportsNet carrying it for Detroit viewers. A back to back puts the goaltending decision in front of the coaching staff straight away. Tarasov has a save percentage of .940 across four appearances this season and John Gibson .860 across ten, which is the argument for the goaltender who has just played, and the schedule is the argument against him.
Sources
- National Hockey League, official game summary, for scoring, goaltender lines and records.
- ESPN, game report, for attendance and the Atlantic Division points spread.
- Field Level Media, wire account, for corroborated goal times.
- ESPN, pre-game data feed, for season save percentages, injury listings and the remaining season series.
- Tampa Bay Lightning, game preview, for Tuesday’s start time and venue.
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