Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves to backstop the Florida Panthers to a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center, making the Cats trip to the left coast a successful one.
Eetu Luostarinen (finally) scored his first goal of the season at 14:50 of the opening frame to put the Cats on top. Luostarinen sent the puck to Anton Lundell behind the net and got it right back before moving in front out to beat a befuddled John Gibson from a sharp angle.
Luostarinen jarred rookie defenseman Jackson LaCombe off the puck to contribute to the Panthers’ second goal at the 18:06 mark. Luostarinen’s solid check along the right boards freed the puck for Nick Cousins, who passed down low to Lundell. Lundell then sent a perfect feed knifing through the slot to Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the left circle and his pinpoint shot went in off the far post.
After a scoreless second period, the Ducks really turned up the heat by outshooting tiring Florida 16-6 in the final stanza.
Their only goal came at 7:39 with Aaron Ekblad off for hooking. With Anaheim applying heavy pressure on the power play, Cam Fowler set up Adam Henrique for a open-timer from the right circle. Stolarz made the save only to see the juicy rebound go right to former Panther Frank Vatrano, who fired it into the yawning net for his 12th goal.
The Ducks thought they tied the tilt with 8:49 remaining, but it was ruled that Stolarz didn’t allow the puck to fully cross the goal line on Jacob Silfverberg’s wraparound.
Stolarz would make ten more stops after that to help the Panthers record the 1,000th win in franchise history and finish the road trip with a 2-1 record after a 5-3 victory in San Jose on Tuesday and a tough 2-1 loss to Los Angeles the night prior. A sweet result for the veteran keeper, who was a member of the Ducks from 2019 to 2023.
The game marked the season debuts of defensemen Ekblad and Brandon Montour as well as the Panthers debut of forward Jonah Gadjovich. Good right?
Not so fast… The Cats played at full strength for all of two period before Aleksander Barkov was involved in knee-on-knee collision with LaCombe at center ice 57 seconds into the third. Barkov left the game and did not return. There was initially a major penalty handed out, but after review it was reduced to a tripping minor.
Barkov will get looked at when the team returns home. Hopefully, the injury is not of the long-term variety.
The 11-5-1 Panthers will get a couple of days off before hosting the Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins and Winnipeg Jets this week at Amerant Bank Arena.
Tar & Feathers
- Anton Lundell earned First Star honors for his two-assist performance. It was his first mulitpoint game of the campaign. Lundell registered four shots on goal and was credited with a hit.
- Brandon Montour led the team in ice time, logging 24:02. He finished the game with one shot on goal and a plus-one rating.
- Aaron Ekbald played 20:05 and registered four shots on goal, which was most among the defense corps. He was also credited with a hit and a blocked shot.
- Johan Gadjovich logged 6:20 of ice time and collected two shots on goal in his debut. Welcome to the organization, Jonah!
- John Gibson played his 441st game with the Ducks, tying Guy Herbert for the second-most by a goalie in franchise history. A quality start for Gibson, who finished with 33 saves.
- Samson Reinhart saw his six-game point streak come to an end. The Ducks limited Reinhart to just one shot on goal.
- Former Panther Radko Gudas was stats machine, producing two shots, four blocks and a game-high five hits in 23:03 of ice time. We miss you, Radko!