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 Mrazek made 23 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and ninth
of his career and center Pavel Datsyuk scored twice Detroit's 3-0
victory against the Florida Panthers on Monday at Joe Louis Arena.
"You know we did a great job with the penalty killers, they did a
great job today, so that's one of the keys and one of the reasons I
had the shutout today," Mrazek said. "Yeah, I had five shots maybe
in the first 25 minutes or 30 minutes. So I had to stay focused but
we did a great job in front of the net."
Left winger Tomas Tatar also scored for the Red Wings and forward
Henrik Zetterberg had two assists.
"You have to have elite goaltending, I think, to have an opportunity
to be real good in the league," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said.
" ... Certainly Petr's a big piece of our puzzle."
Goalie Al Montoya made 28 saves for Florida.
"I don't think we competed hard enough the first half of the game,"
Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. "... I just think they wanted it
a little bit more than we did."
Florida right winger Jaromir Jagr, 43, played his 1,600th career
game. He has played the most games of any active NHL player and is
10th all- time.
Tatar gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead 4:19 into the third period when
defenseman Jakub Kindl's shot from the point in the middle of the
ice deflected in off the shaft of Kindl's stick. It was Tatar's 16th
goal and second in two games.
Datsyuk made it 2-0 with 8:34 left with a power-play goal. He beat
Montoya with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.
Florida coach Gerard Gallant challenged the goal because he thought
the play had been offside, but the score stood.
Datsyuk scored again 1:08 later when he took a pass from Zetterberg,
cut in on Montoya and slid a backhand shot through Montoya's pads.
It was Datsyuk and Zetterberg's second game back playing on the same
line. The pair, both natural centers, has played on the same line a
lot during their careers.
"It's fun," Zetterberg said. "We've been playing on the same team
for many, many years and basically seven years since we played with
each other for almost a full season, so it's fun when we get a
chance to play with each other."
Said Datsyuk: "It's only one game. I hope we just keeping going,
find it more together and whole team come together and play better."
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Datsyuk scored his seventh and eighth goals.
Florida center Aleksander Barkov didn't play in the third period
after taking a big hit from Detroit winger Justin Abdelkader.
"It was a cheap hit. It was a head shot. I don't know why the ref
didn't call it," Panthers center Nick Bjugstad said.
Abdelkader talked about the hit.
"Obviously not trying to hit him in the head or contact him that
way," he said. "I thought my feet were down and I thought I followed
through through his body. But sometimes those hits can change
momentum. Hopefully he's all right."
Gallant said Barkov went through the concussion protocol and likely
wouldn't play against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.
NOTES: Detroit was without D Mike Green (groin), D Niklas Kronwall
(knee), LW Drew Miller (knee) and RW Johan Franzen (RW). Green
missed his first game with the injury and was replaced in the lineup
by Jakub Kindl. ... Florida C Vincent Trochek was the NHL Third Star
for the week ending Feb. 7. Trochek had three goals and three
assists in three games. Trochek played youth hockey in the Detroit
area when he was a teenager. ... The Panthers defeated the Red Wings
6-3 in Florida on Thursday. ... Florida was without C Dave Bolland
(lower body), D Willie Mitchell (lower body) and D Erik Gudbranson
(lower body). ... Florida D Aaron Ekblad turned 20 on Sunday. He is
from Windsor, which is across the Detroit River from Detroit.
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