Anton Lundell scores twice as Panthers rally from 4-1 down to beat Red Wings 5-4

Anton Lundell scored twice in the third period, including the winner off a highlight-reel pass from Brady Tkachuk with 2:40 left, and the Florida Panthers erased a 4-1 deficit to beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 on Thursday night, Nov. 12, at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.

It was Florida's biggest comeback of the season, according to The Associated Press, and it came against the team that beat the Panthers 5-3 in Detroit just 10 days earlier. Sam Reinhart scored his 200th goal as a Panther, Gustav Forsling and Lars Eller also scored, and Carter Verhaeghe had three assists as Florida improved to 11-7-2.

Detroit, which got goals from J.T. Compher, Andreas Englund, Lucas Raymond and Marco Kasper, lost its fifth straight game and fell to 7-10-3. The teams have now split their season series 1-1 with two meetings left.

Reinhart's milestone, then a Detroit avalanche

Reinhart opened the scoring 3:52 into the game, finishing on the backhand with assists from Verhaeghe and Seth Jones. The goal was the 200th of his Panthers career, making him the second player in franchise history to reach that mark, behind captain Aleksander Barkov, according to the team. Reinhart had moved past Jonathan Huberdeau into second place on the franchise's all-time goals list with an empty-netter in Tuesday's 4-1 win at Columbus. Barkov leads the list with 286.

The lead lasted 15 seconds. Compher tied it at 4:07, and Englund put Detroit ahead at 13:14 of the first with his first goal in more than two years. The defenseman had not scored since Oct. 17, 2024, at Montreal, and his only other NHL goal came in 2023 at Toronto, according to the AP. Before Thursday, he had gone 85 games on U.S. ice without a goal.

Raymond made it 3-1 just 17 seconds into the second period, and Kasper's tip-in at 12:08, his first goal of the season, pushed Detroit's lead to 4-1. The AP reported that the goal drew some boos from the home crowd. It was only the third time this season Detroit had put together a four-goal run in a game, the AP noted, and at that point the Red Wings appeared to be in control.

The comeback

Forsling started the rally with a wrist shot with 18 seconds left in the second period, cutting the deficit to 4-2 heading into the second intermission. It was Verhaeghe's second assist of the night.

Lundell made it 4-3 at 2:32 of the third, with Verhaeghe and Aaron Ekblad assisting. Florida kept coming, and Eller tied it with 3:31 to play, batting in a puck with Niko Mikkola picking up the assist. Less than a minute later, Brady Tkachuk found Lundell for the go-ahead goal at 17:20, with Matthew Tkachuk earning the second assist. Detroit goaltender John Gibson logged 57:17 of ice time, with the Red Wings pulling him for an extra attacker in the closing minutes, but Florida held on through the final 2:40.

According to the team's recap, the Panthers outchanced Detroit 12-4 in the third period, and goaltender Akira Schmid made seven high-danger saves on the night.

Here is the scoring summary, according to ESPN:

Standouts

Lundell has been on a tear, with five goals in his last five games, according to the team. His two goals Thursday gave him six on the season, and he won 10 of 15 faceoffs.

Verhaeghe's three assists marked his 17th three-point game as a Panther. Matthew Tkachuk extended his assist streak to six straight games, and Brady Tkachuk's helper on the winner was his 11th assist of the season. Ten different Panthers recorded at least one point, and Eller finished a team-best plus-4.

Schmid stopped 24 of 28 shots for the win and kept Detroit off the board over the final 20 minutes after allowing four goals across the first two periods. Gibson made 24 saves on 29 shots. Florida outshot the Red Wings 29-28 and dominated physically, finishing with 36 hits to Detroit's 13. Neither team scored on the power play, with each going 0 for 2. Moritz Seider had two assists for Detroit.

A rematch with a different ending

The win avenged a 5-3 loss in Detroit on Nov. 2, when the Red Wings handed Florida one of its early-season division losses. The Panthers entered Thursday as the only NHL team without a point against a division opponent this season, according to the AP. They are now 1-4-0 against Atlantic Division rivals.

The victory was Florida's second straight after a 4-1 win at Columbus on Tuesday, and the Panthers have won six of their last nine games, according to the team. The night doubled as the Panthers' Military Appreciation Night, and an announced crowd of 19,151 watched the comeback.

Still waiting on Barkov and Marchand

Florida has been winning without two of its most important forwards. Barkov, who missed all of last season with a leg injury, left the Oct. 1 game against San Jose with a lower-body injury but avoided surgery. Brad Marchand has been out since leaving an Oct. 6 game against Los Angeles with a lower-body injury. Both joined the morning skate in Columbus earlier this week, and coach Paul Maurice indicated they could return within about two weeks, according to FloridaPanthers.com. Their initial recovery estimates were six to eight weeks.

What's next

The Panthers open a road back-to-back at the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. at Enterprise Center. The Red Wings stay in Florida and visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. Florida and Detroit meet twice more this season, on Dec. 12 and Jan. 29, according to ESPN's schedule.