Marchand scores 1st goal for Panthers in win against Red Wings

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Brad Marchand scored his first goal for the Florida Panthers in a 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday.

“I’m just enjoying this whole journey, it is such a unique experience for myself,” said Marchand, who spent his first 16 seasons with the Boston Bruins before being acquired in a trade on March 7. “I have been part of really good teams that have accomplished big things, and some that haven’t. Regardless, what you realize is these opportunities are few and far between. Enjoy every day in this League, and I’m having a lot of fun right now.”

Evan Rodrigues, Mackie Samoskevich and Aleksander Barkov also scored for the Panthers (46-29-4), who are one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have one game in hand, for second place in the Atlantic Division. Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves.

The win was No. 915 for Florida coach Paul Maurice, moving him past Barry Trotz for sole possession of third in NHL history.

“There are lots of good styles of game at this time of the year,” Maurice said. “It wasn’t a real heavy game, they have some real skill and are a fast team. I was fine with it.”

Alex DeBrincat scored for the Red Wings (36-35-7), who remained eight points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Cam Talbot made 27 saves.

“I liked our start. Usually in this building you’re going to play a pretty intense 10-minute game, and I thought we played that well,’’ Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “After one [period], leading was a good thing, but by the third, our shift length got away from us. We got tired, made some poor decisions, and it was in our net. That was our night.’’

DeBrincat gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at 6:13 of the first period. Dylan Larkin chased down a dump in behind the net and found DeBrincat for a one-timer in front.

“We had our chances, it just doesn’t seem to be going in,” said DeBrincat, whose team was coming off a 4-1 loss in Montreal on Tuesday. “They are a good team and are going to put in their chances. We have some things to clean up on in our zone, maybe too much zone time for them. We did a good job of creating, it just wasn’t enough.’’

Rodrigues scored a power-play goal to tie it 1-1 at 2:58 of the second, taking a pass at the bottom of the left circle and driving to the net to stuff it past Talbot.

“That was a really good game,” Rodrigues said. “I think everyone knows the playoffs are right around the corner and we really need to dial in our game. I don’t think there was a guy who wasn’t pulling on the rope. Great collective effort from Bobrovsky all the way up.”

Samoskevich made it 2-1 at 8:46, beating Talbot over his glove with a turnaround wrist shot from the slot.

Marchand, who was playing his eighth game with Florida, pushed it to 3-1 at 16:21. Uvis Balinskis carried the puck into the offensive zone and slipped a lead pass to a streaking Marchand for a quick shot from the slot.

Barkov redirected a point shot from Seth Jones past Talbot for the 4-1 final at 14:03 of the third.

“Everyone did their part, up and down the lineup,” Jones said. “It was a great team win. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going.’’

NOTE: Maurice (915) trails only Joel Quenneville (969) and Scotty Bowman (1,244) for the most wins in League history. “My appreciation for things is the whole group here,” Maurice said Thursday. “This has been a wholly and completely unexpected level of joy that I find in my job because of the men who are around here.’’