Franzen lifts Red Wings over Panthers 3-2

11/14/2008

SUNRISE, Fla. Johan Franzen scored on the power play early in the third period to lift the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Friday night.

Marian Hossa had the first two goals for the Red Wings, who improved their NHL-best road record to 8-1-1. Niklas Kronwall had two assists.

Franzen s game-winner came at 4:40 when he tipped Kronwall s slap shot from the point while standing in front of the net.

Richard Zednik and Stephen Weiss scored for Florida, which had won two straight.

Detroit s Ty Conklin stopped 25 shots to win a battle of backup goalies against Craig Anderson. Conklin improved to 6-0 lifetime in seven career games against the Panthers.

Anderson, who stopped 68 of 69 shots in Florida s previous two games, was pulled in favor of regular starter Tomas Vokoun at 1:37 of the second after Hossa s second goal made it 2-0.

Hossa beat Anderson on Detroit s first shot of the period with a seemingly harmless slap shot to the blocker side from the top of the faceoff circle.

Anderson was even more shaky on the first goal at 17:07 of the first period. After Hossa won a race for the puck in the corner beyond the goal line, he fired it toward the net. The puck bounced off the left skate of Anderson, who then kicked it all in the way in after going down.

The switch to Vokoun appeared to energize the Panthers, who carried the play the rest of the second period while outshooting Detroit 10-6.

Zednik cut the lead to 2-1 when he backhanded home a rebound after Bryan McCabe s slap shot from the point. Weiss tied it at 11:52 of the second when he took Zednik s backhand pass and fired a wrist shot from close range through traffic that beat Conklin to the blocker side.

NOTES: As is tradition back in Detroit, an octopus was thrown onto the ice after Franzen s goal. ... Datsyuk assisted on Hossa s second goal to extend his point streak to five games. ... Detroit RW Dan Cleary missed his third consecutive game because of an eye infection. ... Florida returned G Tyler Plante to Dayton of the ECHL. ... Florida C Kamil Kreps missed his fourth consecutive game because of a concussion.