Luongo, Huberdeau help Panthers edge Red Wings

DETROIT --Roberto Luongo made 33 saves, and Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists for the Florida Panthers in a 2-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.

It was the 11th multipoint game in the past 14 for Huberdeau, who has 25 points (five goals, 20 assists) in that span.
"He's such a great passer that you always have to be ready when you are out there," said Mike Hoffman, who scored for Florida. "He's going to give you a lot of chances."
WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Red Wings highlights]
Evgenii Dadonov scored, and Aleksander Barkov had two assists for the Panthers (14-14-6), who won for the third time in four games.
"It was good for us to win a 2-1 game, especially on the road," Florida coach Bob Boughner said. "They threw everything at us in the third period, but [Luongo] made some huge saves and we were able to scrape two points out of this rink."
Thomas Vanek scored for the Red Wings (15-17-5), which lost for the fifth time in six games. Jimmy Howard made 21 saves.
"We gave ourselves plenty of chances to win this game," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "We made two mistakes in the first period and gave up two goals, and we need to score when we have opportunities."
Hoffman made it 1-0 at 3:09 of the first period, scoring nine seconds into a power play off a pass from Huberdeau for his 16th goal of the season. Dadonov made it 2-0 at 17:21 with his 17th goal, taking a pass from Huberdeau to score from just outside the crease.

Huberdeau had no points and was minus-2 in a 6-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.
"I really challenged our leadership group to step up after what happened against Toronto, and he was a big part of that," Boughner said.
Dadonov played on the first line with Huberdeau and Barkov, taking Hoffman's place
"We have so much talent that it is great to play on either of our top two lines," said Hoffman, who plays on the first power-play unit. "Obviously, everyone wants to play with [Huberdeau] and [Barkov], but you don't change lines when things are going well, and those three have been great."
Vanek made it 2-1 at 10:00 of the second period, stealing the puck from Jared McCann behind the net and bringing it in front.
"I saw a little opening, so I just wanted to take it hard to the front of the net," Vanek said. "It worked out, but this was another frustrating loss. Obviously, we need to score more. It takes us 10-12 chances to get something."

Luongo, without his stick, made two point-blank saves on Dylan Larkin in the third period to preserve the lead. He made saves against Niklas Kronwall and Vanek in the final seven seconds.
"He's still really good; he's had an unbelievable career, and to still play at that level is extremely impressive," Kronwall said. "I think we made it too easy for him early on, but he came up with some tough saves in the third."
Florida was 4-for-4 on the penalty kill one game after going 0-for-3.
"I thought our kill has been really good lately, even though Toronto got a few," Luongo said. "The guys were keeping everything to the outside, blocking a lot of shots and clearing everything from in front of me."

They said it

"We had a really good start and got the two quick goals, and I thought we carried the game for the first two periods. They threw everything at us in the third, but we did what we needed to do to hold them off." -- Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo
"We've got to find a way to grind through this. We have to go into Toronto tomorrow and find a way to put a ton of pressure on them. We can't let them come at us and make us defend a lot." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill

Need to know

Barkov was called for a holding penalty in the second period, ending a streak of 63 games without a penalty. … Larkin had his nine-game point streak end. … Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou was a late scratch with an upper-body injury. Blashill said he is questionable for the game Sunday.

What's next

Panthers:At the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, WGN, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Red Wings: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, SN, SN360, TVAS, NHL.TV)