The Florida Panthers dominated the Calgary Flames from start to finish, posting a convincing 3-0 victory at Amernat Bank Arena to split the season series.
The teams played a scoreless first period that saw the Panthers pepper Dan Vladar with 16 shots, the best chance being Eetu Luostarinen’s shorthanded deflection of Anton Lundell’s pretty pass, but to no avail.
Three was a magic number for Johan Gadjovich as he took multiple whacks at the puck after taking a centering pass from A.J. Greer to finally open the scoring 4:47 into the second period. Nate Schmidt drew the secondary assist on Gadjovich third of the season, which withstood review.
After dealing with the ridiculously honed-in Vladar and some guff from the zebras, who waved off two apparent goals, the Cats were able to tack on another with 36 ticks left in the frame when Evan Rodrigues took a short pass from Aaron Ekblad and his centering pass intended for Sam Bennett, who got the second helper, struck the Calgary keeper’s stick and bounced into the net. The late goal came off a counter attack after Connor Zary couldn’t get a shot away in the Florida end.
Mackie Samoskevich completed the scoring with a beautiful goal off the rush with 4:52 left in regulation. After collecting a turnover, Evan Rodrigues burst up the ice and dropped the puck to Bennett after crossing the blue line. Bennett dished off to Samoskevich and he went forehand to backhand to register his tenth of the season with panache.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 23 shots faced, including 11 in the third period, to post his third shutout of the campaign as the Panthers avenged the loss to the Flames in Calgary by the same score on December 14.
The Cats are back in first place in the Atlantic Division, but that could be temporary with the Toronto Maple Leafs visiting the Pittsburgh Penguins this afternoon.
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