Talbot makes 32 saves, Red Wings hold off slumping Panthers

DETROIT -- Cam Talbot made 32 saves, and the Detroit Red Wings held off the Florida Panthers for a 2-1 win at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday.

“Good goaltending gives you an opportunity to win the game, and that’s what [Talbot] is giving us right now,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “The team is very confident in him right now, and that’s a real good thing to have at this time of the year.”

Alex DeBrincat and J.T. Compher scored for the Red Wings (36-33-7), who have earned a point in four straight games (3-0-1).

“I think we’re doing a pretty good job of playing with the lead,” DeBrincat said. “We’ve been up and down all year with that, and right now we’re still trying to get our chances and not sitting back too much.”

Detroit remained six points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference after the Canadiens defeated the Nashville Predators 2-1 later Sunday.

Detroit plays at Montreal on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN2, FDSNDETX).

“Obviously, that’s going to be one of the biggest games of the year,” Talbot said. “That’s the team we have to catch, so we definitely need to ride this momentum.”

Anton Lundell scored for the Panthers (44-29-4), who have lost five straight (0-4-1). Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves.

Florida played without its four leading scorers: Aleksander Barkov (upper body), Matthew Tkachuk (upper body), Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart. Bennett and Reinhart were rested in preparation for the postseason.

“You want every advantage you can get, home ice and all that, but we’ve got to heal these guys,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We have to give ourselves a chance to play physically in the playoffs and our schedule won’t allow that right now.”

Florida remained in third place in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers are also two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators, who hold the first wild card and defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0 on Sunday.

“We had guys come in and do a really good job,” said Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich, who had an assist. “We played great, but a couple mistakes ended up in our net.”

DeBrincat gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 4:37 of the second period. He beat Vanecek from the left face-off dot after a pass from Lucas Raymond.

Compher made it 2-0 at 11:23, beating Vanecek glove side after a pass from Marco Kasper.

Talbot kept the game scoreless with 3:55 left in the third period, stopping Carter Verhaeghe’s shot before lunging to block Jesse Puljujarvi’s rebound attempt with his stick.

Puljujarvi had five shots on goal in his Panthers debut after signing with Florida as a free agent on March 5.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I want to help this team and show I can play at a high level.”

DeBrincat hit the goal post with Vanecek pulled for the extra skater before Lundell cut it to 2-1 with 40 seconds remaining on a shot through traffic.

“My last two empty-net goals have gone in off the post, so I guess I was due for one to bounce the other way,” DeBrincat said. “I’m going to work on shooting them into the middle of the net.”

Talbot then made a glove save on Lundell with two seconds left to help seal the win.

“I lost sight of the puck for a second, but I knew when it got to the flank, he was going to put it on net,” Talbot said. “From there, it is just desperation; I’m trying to get as much of my body as I can to that side of the net.”

NOTES: Patrick Kane picked up the second assist on Detroit’s first goal. It was his 89th career assist on a DeBrincat goal and the 139th time one of the two has assisted on the other’s goal. … Puljujarvi, Rasmus Asplund and Matt Kiersted were called up from Charlotte of the American Hockey League to fill out the lineup for Florida. Asplund had one shot on goal in 7:11 and Kiersted blocked a shot in 15:21 of ice time.