The Florida Panthers blew a two-goal lead for the second straight game and went on to suffer a disturbing 5-3 loss to the Calgary Flames at Amerant Bank Arena.
Former Panther Jonathan Huberdeau was in giving mood as his turnover led to the game-opening goal just 54 seconds in. Jesper Boqvist got a piece of Huberdeau’s risky outlet pass and Sam Reinhart backhanded down low to Evan Rodrigues, who finished five-hole on Devon Cooley.
A bad line change left a lonely Rasmus Andersson facing A.J. Greer and Sam Bennett on a 2-on-1 break. After taking a crisp cross from Carter Verhaeghe at center, Greer entered the zone on the left side before threading a pass to Bennett. The former Flame went backhand to forehand to solve Cooler from in close at 2:58.
Rookie Yan Kuznetsov skated into the Panthers zone, after taking a crossing pass from Blake Coleman, on an innocuous looking 2-on-2 rush and, using Jeff Petry as a screen, fired the puck past Daniil Tarasov for his first NHL goal 3:37 later.
Working below the goal line, Mikael Backlund made a heady pass back out to the right point to MacKenzie Weegar and his low shot through traffic would find the twine behind Tarasov at 10:41 to tie the score, with second assist going to Connor Zary.
The Flames would start the second period with a five-on-three advantage and they converted at the 55-second mark to seize the lead. After exchanging passes with Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri fed Andersson at the point and his shot was stopped by Tarasov, but Morgan Frost was able to get the rebound to go after it hit the goalie in the mask.
Kadri would extend the lead at 18:44 when he deflected Andersson’s shot past Tarasov after Joel Farabee fed the defenseman at the right point. Uh oh…
After making a glove save on Matt Coronato, Tarasov handed the puck to Brad Marchand, who head-manned to Anton Lundell. Lundell crossed to Reinhart on the right side and he found Marchand in the high slot and he beat Cooley with a wrister to pull the Cats within one with 8:06 remaining in the third.
Unfortunately, that’s a close as the Cats would get. Bennett would get a good look with Tarasov on the bench, but Farabee would take a pass from Kadri and send the puck into the empty net to seal the deal, notching his 100th career goal in the process at 18:57.
Another game, another two-goal lead blown as the Panthers fell to 0-2 on its current homestand. After being gifted a pair of goals to start, the Cats couldn’t add another until they were down two with time running out as Calgary made Florida’s Black Friday even darker. PoMo & Co. will get a few days to work on righting the ship when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
The Five Hole
- After seeing his seven-game point streak come to an end on Wednesday, Sam Reinhart set up a pair of goals to make an impact on the score sheet. Reinhart now has 23 points in 24 games.
- Brad Marchand’s goal extended his point streak to four games and put him in a four-way tie for fourth place in the league with 15 goals. The only players with more markers than Marchand are Nathan MacKinnon, Morgan Geekie and Kirill Kaprizov.
- Speaking of four-game point streaks, Sam Bennett hit the mark with his sixth of the season. Bennett had a team-high six shots and was credited with two hits.
- Daniil Tarasov made 29 saves and fell to 2-4-1 on the season. He saw his GAA rise to 2.67 and save percentage drop to .907.
- The Panthers tested Devin Cooley 40 times and led 37-19 in scoring chances at 5-on-5.
Stat Card
