Aleksander Barkov scored a goal and added an assist in his first action since October 10 to help the Florida Panthers overcome the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 at KeyBank Center.
Following off back-to-back wins over the Rangers and Islanders, the Panthers got off to a fast start in Upstate New York with Jesper Boqvist potting his second of the season at the 11:01 mark. Eetu Luostarinen crossed to Anton Lundell and he went back to a wide-open Boqvist on the left side. With a few shooting holes to chose from, Boqvist fired the puck past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to open the scoring.
Barkov would make an impact 55 seconds later, when his beautiful no-look backhand pass from below the goal line to Sam Reinhart in the slot. Reinhart buried the sweet dish top-shelf for his seventh of the season with Connor Clifton off for cross-checking. The secondary assist on the goal went to Carter Verhaeghe.
After the Panthers failed to extend the lead during the first half of the second period, the Sabres made a push to square the game.
With Luostarinen serving a high-sticking minor, Tage Thompson took a pass from J.J. Peterka, only to have his shot altered by Boqvist. The puck floated towards the goal and was batted in by Jason Zucker at 10:45.
Rasmus Dahlin evened it up 1:52 later after taking a pass from partner Owen Power and driving towards the cage. Dahlin switched to his forehand and snapped off a shot that hit Sergei Bobrovsky in the torso before finding the back of the net.
The Cats would regain the lead with 3:16 left in the period off the rush. Sam Bennett carried the puck up ice before dishing off to Matthew Tkachuk as the two crossed the line. Tkachuk hard wrister struck Luukkonen’s shoulder and rebounded off Verhaghe’s body as well. The puck fell to the ice and Verhaeghe was able to swat it in.
Bennett would score Florida’s second power-play goal of the night with 5:25 left in regulation to provide breathing room. Nate Schmidt returned the puck to Bennett and he moved into the right circle and beat Luukkonen blocker-side with a tumbling wrist shot.
Barkov completed the scoring 68 seconds later. Reinhart gloved down an aerial dump-out by Gustav Forsling at center ice and sent Barkov into the Buffalo zone, where the captain was given a lot of space to work with and ended up unleashing a wrister from the top of the right circle off the far post and in for his first of the season, earning himself the nod as the game’s First Star.
Except for a little blip in the middle of the second, the Panthers delivered another strong performance on the road to sweep its three-game jaunt through the Empire State. Reinhart, Verhaeghe, Bennett and Barkov each contributed a goal and a helper to the offensive cause and Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 28 shots on the other end. The Cats will cross the pond to play the Dallas Stars twice in the 2024 NHL Global Series Finland (presented by Fastenal) at Nokia Arena in Tampere on Friday and Saturday.
Swords & Tequila
- He’s done it quietly, and mostly with assists, but Carter Verhaeghe’s helper on Sam Reinhart’s power-play goal grew his point streak to seven games. That’s one short of his career-high. Verhaeghe’s second of the season turned out to be the game-winner.
- Second Star Sam Bennett has scored in five-straight games and leads the team with eight goals. Bennett finished the tilt with three shots, one block and a hit.
- The Panthers halted Buffalo’s three-game winning streak and held the Sabres to less than four goals for the first time in seven games.
- Sergei Bobrovsky recorded his 401st NHL win, tying him with Chris Osgood for 13th place all-time. Bobrovsky lowered his GAA to 2.97 and upped his save percentage to .892.
- The usually dangerous Tage Thompson didn’t have a shot on goal, but managed to extend his point-streak to seven games.