(SportsNetwork.com) – The Detroit Red Wings aim to extend their longest
winning streak of the season to five straight games on Tuesday night as they
play host to the Florida Panthers.
The Red Wings closed the month of November on a roll, beating Vancouver 5-3 on
Sunday to improve to 8-2-1 in their past 11 games. Pavel Datsyuk scored twice
versus the Canucks, giving him nine goals and 15 points in 13 contests this
season.
Gustav Nyquist, Niklas Kronwall and Danny DeKeyser all lit the lamp for the
Red Wings, while Jimmy Howard stopped 30 shots in the win.
Detroit’s opener of a four-game homestand was delayed for about a half hour
less than a minute in after a power surge affected some of the lights in the
arena.
“In the end, we got two points, that’s what matters,” said Detroit forward
Henrik Zetterberg, who had two assists. “We played a good team here today and
it’s nice to see that we can get some goals.”
Detroit forward Justin Abdelkader left the game with a shoulder injury and is
day-to-day, though unlikely to play tonight.
The Panthers hope to rebound after having a two-game winning streak halted
with a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night. Rookie
defenseman Aaron Ekblad had his club’s goal, giving him three tallies and 12
points on the season.
With Roberto Luongo not starting for a second game in a row due to an upper-
body injury, Al Montoya made 21 saves in defeat.
“These are the games that we have to have,” said Montoya. “Some nights you
need to slug it out 2-1, and we weren’t able to do that.”
Luongo did back up last night and may start this contest. He is 7-5-5 this
season with a 2.33 goals against average and .927 save percentage in 17
starts.
The Panthers won three of their five meetings with the Red Wings last season,
winning both trips to Detroit.
