Marchand Scores First Goal With Panthers in 4-1 Win Over Red Wings

SUNRISE, Fla. — Mackie Samoskevich had the game winner, Brad Marchand scored his first goal as a Florida Panther and the Cats took down the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Thursday night at Amerant Bank Arena.

“I’m just enjoying this whole journey,” Marchand said. “It’s such a unique experience for myself. I’ve been part of really good teams that have accomplished big things and some that haven’t. And regardless, what you realize is that these opportunities are very few and far between, and you got to enjoy every day in this league. I’m having a lot of fun right now. The guys are awesome.”

Evan Rodrigues and Aleksander Barkov also scored for the Panthers as they improved to 37-34-7.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 of 23 shots to pick up his 33rd win of the season.

Alex DeBrincat had the lone Red Wings goal in a disappointing result for Detroit, who is all but out of contention for a playoff spot, as they are eight points behind Montreal (wild card 2) with just four games remaining in their season.

In the victory, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice overtook Barry Trotz for third place on the All-Time NHL wins list with 915. Only Scottie Bowman (1,244) and Joel Quenneville (969) have more wins in NHL history.

Maurice gave a humble, team first answer, when asked about his milestones.

“My appreciation for things is the whole group here [and] how much I enjoy sitting in the coach’s office with Bill as well, the equipment guys, the medical guys and the players,” Maurice said. “This has been wholly and completely unexpected level of joy that I find in my job because of the men that are around here.”

He added: “If I was asked today the memory, it’s this group, it’s the fun that we’ve had.”

With three games remaining in the season, the Panthers sit third in the Atlantic Division with 96 points. They are one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Panthers Notes

Carter Verhaeghe did not play in Thursday night’s win. The 29-year-old forward was the latest veteran Panther to be given a rest day as the postseason is approaching.

Jesper Boqvist returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch in Tuesday night’s win against Toronto.

Nico Sturm also returned to the lineup on Thursday after missing the past four games with an upper-body injury.

Defenseman Seth Jones and Niko Mikkola were paired up on the blue line for the Panthers, while Gustav Forsling and Nate Schmidt were the other top-4 pair.

Defenseman Aaron Ekblad was cleared by the NHL/NHLPA to resume all team activities except for playing in games. Ekblad was suspended 20 games last month for violating the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.

“It’s really important [to have Ekblad back with the group],” Paul Maurice said postgame. “It lets him come in and buy a lot of dinners for the guys, right? His credit card will take a beating.”

”He steps on the ice and it’s another six-four, six-five guy on your blue line and now all of the guys in red (practice jerseys) look big. And it adds a little something.”

Ekblad is eligible to return for Game 3 of the first-round.