Darren Helm

Detroit Red Wings center Darren Helm (43) flies towards the goal against the Florida Panthers in the second period during an NHL hockey game in Detroit Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

(Paul Sancya)

DETROIT -- Sooner or later the goals against were going to catch up with them, and Tuesday night the Detroit Red Wings learned that the hard way.

Searching for its first five-game win streak in two seasons, Detroit instead looked slow and uninterested at times during its 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers at Joe Louis Arena. It was the seventh time this season the Red Wings (14-6-5-) have allowed at least four goals, and the second in the last three games.

Far from the team's 2.74 goals-against average.

"If we let in three goals a night it's not easy to win games," forward Henrik Zetterberg said. "You've got to score a lot of them yourself. Even tonight some of the goals shouldn't have happened. But it does, and it's something we've got to change."

Detroit outshot Florida 41-31 but finished minus-8 in giveaways, turning the puck over eight times in the first period. They scored first on a Tomas Tatar power play goal but gave up the lead later in the period on a goal from Jimmy Hayes.

The lackluster effort poured over into the second period, and while the turnovers were cleaned up for the most part (Detroit was minus-11 in its 5-3 win Sunday over Vancouver) Florida had trouble getting shots off near the net.

"We had our count around 20 turnovers," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "You have no chance. Mentally we weren't engaged. Whatever we did today wasn't the right thing."

Said Johan Franzen: "You get comfortable and let your guard down a little bit. We have to keep telling ourselves it's going to be a war out there and to come prepared every night."

Everyone agreed Tuesday night that Detroit was outplayed physically and mentally, downplaying any talk that the canceled morning skate had anything to do with the team's play.

Detroit hosts Dallas on Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.

"It's bad mistakes, bad giveaways and not many shots on net," Tomas Tatar said. "We just have to flush this out of our heads and get ready for the next game."

Said Babcock: "We have to regroup and get back at 'er. We're going to have an off-day tomorrow. So we'll get refreshed mentally so there's no excuse mentally or physically, and we'll get back at it."

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Aaron McMann covers sports for The Flint Journal. Contact him at amcmann@mlive.com; follow him on Twitter @AaronMcMann.