SUNRISE -- What could have been an extremely successful road trip turned into an extremely frustrating one for the Red Wings.
The Wings had a chance to get at least one point but Jonathan Huberdeau scored with 7.7 seconds left on a controversial goal for a 3-2 Florida Panthers win.
Trending: Wings upset over controversial call in loss
Team confused about what constitutes goaltender interference
© Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images
By
Dana Wakiji @Dwakiji / DetroitRedWings.com
The Red Wings fell to 21-22-8 overall and 10-12-1 on the road while the Panthers improved to 22-22-6 overall and 12-8-3 at home.
Danny DeKeyser (two goals) scored for Detroit and Aaron Ekblad, Aleksander Barkov and Huberdeau scored for Florida.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Maxim Mamin had their first career NHL fight at 13:40 of the third period.
1. No goaltender interference: As Justin Abdelkader said after the game, everyone is talking about the play. The play happened when Huberdeau went to the net, made contact with Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek and then put the puck in the net when Mrazek was unable to make the save with 7.7 seconds left in regulation. The situation room in Toronto called for a review and eventually said there was not enough evidence of goaltender interference to overturn the call on the ice, which was a goal. After the play, Mrazek immediately went to the referee to make his case that Huberdeau's contact had prevented him from doing. The referee tossed Wings coach Jeff Blashill.
Quotable: "That was a shot from the side, and how I said before. I just tried to come out. I don't think Greener (Mike Green) pushed him at all inside. I lost the puck, I lost the balance because he bumped me in front. He made a rebound and put it in. I don't know what's gonna be called interference. We could see the guy was in the crease. I tried to come out. He went inside and bumped me a little bit. I fell. We could see a couple of weeks ago in Toronto-Edmonton where they called goalie interference on this type of interference, so I would like to know what the explanation was." - Mrazek
Quotable II: "I don't know if the standard is the right word, but it appears it's changed. I know it's changed in the last week. I know a week ago it would have been said for sure that was no goal. This week it looks like everything's a goal. We talk lots during the early parts about the education process in the blue and if you're in the blue and you don't allow the goalie to play his position, those are gonna get called back. So I guess I got to re-educate my forwards in terms of going to the blue the other way. It's frustrating for sure." - Blashill
Quotable III: "The inconsistency in this league right now, if it's the refs, or if it's the guys in Toronto, or if it's the suspensions or the fines, it's hard for us as players to know what rules we are playing under. You see it over and over again. Losing a game like this that is really important, the points were really important, on a call that yesterday could have been goalie interference and tonight it's not." - Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg
Quotable IV: "That's insane they called that a goal. I watched it, I watched it on the replay, watched it live. Greener and him are battling in front, Greener never makes a big attempt to push him into our goalie. Skate's in the crease and makes contact with Mrazek. Regardless if Petr falls or not, Petr's got to be able to make that save and he falls back and Huberdeau puts the puck in the net, seven seconds left. I can't. It shocks me that they call that a goal. Everyone's talking about it. Who knows, the replay, I know that, I don't know if that's Toronto's decision, both refs said something different to us on the ice. One ref said something to Z one thing and he told me another thing, that Petr fell on his own. It doesn't seem like we're on the same page. I think everyone around the league, players-wise, coaches, general managers, don't know what's a goal, what's not within goaltender interference. It's frustrating because we battled our tails off to get at least a point in this game and to get that ripped away from us, at this stage of the season when we're really fighting for a playoff spot, it's probably the most frustrated I've been." - Abdelkader
2. Danny DeKeyser: After Friday night's 4-1 victory in Carolina in which DeKeyser and Trevor Daley both scored goals and only Daley celebrated, DeKeyser was asked about working on some better celebrations. DeKeyser said he would "let the guys who score a lot do that stuff." Perhaps DeKeyser needs to rethink his position. At 8:51 of the second period, DeKeyser came into the zone and Frans Nielsen found him in the slot and DeKeyser's shot went in the top left corner of the net, beating Panthers goaltender Harri Sateri. It was DeKeyser's third goal of the season. DeKeyser was also celebrating his 350th career NHL game. But DeKeyser was hardly done. At 3:00 of the third period, DeKeyser drove to the net and the rebound of Darren Helm's shot went off DeKeyser's skate into the net, tying the game at 2. DeKeyser has four goals in 34 games after scoring four in 82 games last season.
Quotable: "I think Danny's been excellent for a month and a half really. I think he's really played well. It was a slow start for him. I think the injury was tough, and then you jump in midstream. That's harder than people realize, especially with the responsibility that we put on Danny. But you know we've emphasized the D getting involved from the beginning of the year, but we certainly have re-emphasized it and the importance of our D adding offense, and they've done a good job of it." - Blashill
3. Petr Mrazek: Blashill decided to go with the hot hand again, starting Mrazek in both games in the back-to-back and for the third time in four nights. Mrazek was kept quite busy. Windsor, Ontario native Aaron Ekblad beat Mrazek stick-side at 3:17 of the first period. Mrazek made several big saves, on Nick Bjugstad at 14:16 of the first, on Mike Matheson early in the second and on Keith Yandle on the breakaway at 10:29 of the second. At 13:38, Aleksander Barkov broke free of Henrik Zetterberg and beat Mrazek for a 2-1 lead.
Quotable: "I felt pretty good. I got ready and do the best I can. I think it was a pretty good night for all of us tonight." - Mrazek