Daniil Tarasov made 47 saves to backstop the Florida Panthers to a 4-2 comeback win over the Carolina Hurricanes in preseason action from Lenovo Center in Raleigh.
The Hurricanes outshot the Panthers 19-2 in the first period and opened the scoring at 10:07 when Ryan Suzuki tipped Mike Reilly’s shot from the left point past Tarasov with the secondary assist going to Kevin Lebanc.
Carolina added another at the 16:20 mark. Eric Robinson knocked the puck away from defenseman Ben Harpur and Andrei Svechnikov centered to Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who snapped a shot home from the inner edge of the right circle.
The Bunch of Jerks dominated the second period as well, testing Tarasov sixteen more times, but couldn’t couldn’t grow the lead as the former Blue Jacket refused to yield.
Florida would catch a break in the final frame when veteran starter Frederik Andersen gave way to Amir Miftakhov after making eight saves over the first forty minutes.
After taking a pass from Mike Benning, who moved from left to right across the blue line, Harpur got the Cats on the board at 3:56 when his shot from the point eluded the screened 25-year-old prospect keeper.
The score remained 2-1 until Noah Gregor stripped a hesitant Miftakhov behind the net and then moved in front to pump Gracyn Sawchyn’s centering feed into the vacated cage with 3:57 left in regulation.
Benning potted his third of the preseason 1:14 later, when his centering pass attempt ramped up off Miftakhov’s stick and crossed the goal line to put the outplayed Panthers ahead.
Jack Studnicka clinched it with a long-range bank shot off the boards, with the lone assist going to Harpur, with 38 ticks to go on the clock as the Cats clawed out an unlikely win.
Hats off to Tarasov, who was simply out of this world, and Benning, who has racked up three goals and an assist in his two exhibition outings. While the Panthers were chasing most of the night against a superior Carolina roster, they had the gumption to stick with it and were opportunistic enough late in the game to steal a win.
The two teams will go at it again on Monday night in Sunrise.