Reilly Smith had to be wondering when the hockey gods were going to look upon him again with a smile. After a great start to the season, scoring 4 goals and tallying 7 points in his first nine games, his production had slowed down.
The talented forward who was traded from Boston for Jimmy Hayes in the offseason knows he’s here to score, and he couldn’t have picked a better time to break the scoring drought than at 14:38 of the 3rd period at Joe Louis Arena Sunday afternoon.
He hadn’t scored a goal since November 10th. Smith thought he may have scored just seconds into the game, but the goal was overturned as the officials deemed Jonathan Huberdeau had interfered with Red Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek before the puck went into the net.
In what was a hard fought game with plenty of power play chances both ways, it was Smith’s even strength tally as he tipped a pass/shot from Aaron Ekblad to tie the game.
In the subsequent overtime period, Brian Campbell wristed the game-winner on a 3 on 1 at the 1:20 mark to seal a much needed victory for Florida.
“It’s good to help the team. We haven’t scored a ton of goals lately. If we can get two or three we are usually in the thick of things,… said Smith. “Luongo played great tonight to keep us in it with the saves he made. It was a gutsy effort.…
The Panthers started a 5-game road trip and inexplicably won for the fifth straight time at Detroit and six of the last seven.
“It’s a great way to start this road trip,… said Smith. “There’s a lot of tough matchups and when you can get a W on the first one it seems like you are off to a good start to get things rolling.…
The Panthers knew they played well enough to win this game, and finally after a rough few weeks at home they finally got some breaks that had been alluding them. They now have won two in a row after going 0-2-1 in their previous three games.
“We worked hard. We played a strong game throughout,… said Campbell. “It was a bad break on their goal, but that stuff happens in games and we have to find a way to gut it out. We took some penalties in the third that we killed off and had a lot of success there as well.…
Regarding the power play being great at home and not nearly as productive on the road after going 0-5 in Detroit, Campbell laughingly said, “at least it’s good somewhere."
Dan Spiegel Florida Panthers Media