The good news is the Florida Panthers overcame three different deficits to eke out a point in a wild 6-5 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames to kick off a four-game, extending the club’s point-streak to seven games.
The bad news is after coming all the way back from a 4-2 hole to take the lead with 5:01 left in the game after Mark Pysyk punched in a pass from behind the net from Denis Malgin, the Cats squandered yet another third period lead 2:18 later, and furthermore, $10 million goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky continues to give up goals at an alarming rate (3.88 GAA) and is proving rather easy to beat in the skills competition, where the Panthers have gone just 1-3 with backup Sam Montembeault posting the lone win.
Matt Tkachuk scored twice in regulation and notched the clinching goal in the bottom of round two of the shootout, adding on to Sean Monahan’s first round tally.
David Rittich denied Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov to secure the victory.
Austin Czarnik, Mark Giordano and Sam Bennett also scored in regulation for Calgary and Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Josh Brown and Evgenii Dadonov scored the other Florida goals.
Bennett put his own rebound in at 17:17 of the final frame to send the game to overtime after Brown, Dadnov and Pysyk scored in a 9:39 span to erase the Flames 4-2 lead.
Barkov had his best game of the season thus far, dishing out four assists and finishing with a plus-two rating, but his inability to finish in the shootout to extend the game had to hurt. The Cats number one center is still looking for his fist goal of the campaign.
The goals by defensemen Brown and Pysyk (now at forward) were their first of the season. Dadonov ended a three-game scoring slump with his first marker in ten days.
Florida gets a two-day break before facing Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night.
Video Recap
Tinder & Ash
- Riley Stillman made his season debut and it wasn’t pretty. Stillman was tagged with a -3 rating in 14:05 TOI in his second NHL appearance.
- Aaron Ekblad played in his 400th NHL game. The Ekblad-Weegar pairing had a good night with the each of the defenders finishing +2 and combining for five shots on goal.
- Despite not looking 100%, Aleksander Barkov has put up nine assists in the last five games. Hopefully, Barkov can put one in the back of the net soon.
- Jonathan Huberdeau has amassed 5 goals and 12 points in the past nine games and scored a point in eight of those tilts. You could say he’s hot right now.
- Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane set up Bennett’s game-tying goal to extend his point-streak to four games.
- Mike Hoffman where art thou? After a blistering start to the season, Hoffman has now gone six games without a goal and only has seven shots on net during that time.
- In addition to Barkov (and Malgin), the other Cats with helpers were Huberdeau, Keith Yandle and Frank Vatrano,
- For the other side’s take, head over to Matchsticks and Gasoline./