Lundell's two goals lead Panthers over Red Wings

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Anton Lundell scored twice, Aleksander Barkov had three assists and the Florida Panthers beat the Detroit Red Wings 6-2 Saturday night to close a five-game homestand.

Mason Marchment, Anthony Duclair and Lundell scored in the first period as the home side built a commanding 3-1 lead.

Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist, and Lucas Carlsson netted one as the Panthers finished their homestand 2-3-0 and moved to 25-6-0 on home ice.

Sam Reinhart and MacKenzie Weegar each had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 21 shots.

“This group realizes where they want to be and where they want to go,” Florida interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “It’s not too hard to motivate them. They want to be great.”

The Finnish center Lundell — a key piece on the penalty kill — has 14 goals and 24 assists in 51 games during his rookie year.

“We were able to get the puck to him tonight, and he’s a finisher,” Reinhart said of Lundell, who is in a Calder Trophy battle with the Red Wings' Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond as the league’s top rookie.

When asked if he was excited to face off against Detroit’s first-year standouts, Lundell replied, “Yeah, maybe a little bit.”

Robby Fabbri and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for Detroit, which was swept in its two-game Florida road trip and is 2-5-0 in the past seven games.

Thomas Greiss left in the second period after surrendering his fifth goal on 23 shots. Alex Nedeljkovic replaced him and made 15 saves.

Florida struck 4:10 into the first period when Marchment collected a rebound and flipped in a backhander for his 13th goal. Detroit answered just over three minutes later when Fabbri, positioned in the slot, perfectly angled in Danny DeKeyser’s long shot for his 16th.

On the game’s