The Florida Panthers remained atop the NHL standings by smoking the Calgary Flames 5-1 in a matinee affair at Amerant Bank Arena to split the season series between the two intertwined clubs.
After a scoreless first period that featuresd ten saves from Anthony Stolarz and eight from Jacob Markstrom, Vladimir Tarasenko notched his first as Panther 23 ticks into second by knocking down an ill-advised Jonathan Huberdeau pass, who was deep in his own end, and quickly firing it past Markstrom.
The Flames only needed seven seconds to convert a hooking call on Dmitry Kulikov to tie the score at 5:51. Andrei Kuzmenko’s pretty backhand pass found Nazem Kadri in the slot for a one-timer that Stolarz stopped. Unfortunately, the puck ended up bouncing off Stoalrz and got behind him and Yegor Sharangovich was able to whack it home. Nice execuction by Calgary off an offensive zone faceoff win.
Back at full strength, Aleksander Barkov put the Cats on top 28 seconds later. After the Flames barely cleared the zone, Tarasenko bounced the puck off the boards to Sam Reinhart and he backhanded the puck by MacKenzie Weegar to a teed-up Barkov, who drilled a shot between Markstrom’s pad and glove.
Sam Bennett’s nifty delection of Gustav Forsling’s hard drive from the blue line put the Panthers up by two at the 13:12 mark. Bennett won a draw in the left circle and went to the net and Matthew Tkachuk made a nice play to hold the zone and get the puck to Forsling while being pressured by Blake Coleman.
Tarasenko extended the lead to three 1:43 after Bennettt’s goal. After setting up Oliver Ekman-Larsson from the behind the net for a prime chance that was denied by Markstrom, Tarasenko drfited back out above the right circle. Ekman-Larrson dropped the puck back to Forsling, who sent it over to Tarasenko and he wired a wrister by Markstrom’s glove for his second of the period.
Kevin Stenlund became just the second Panther to score a shorthanded this season when he took a pass off his skate from Eetu Luostarinen, quickly settled the puck and then chipped it over Markstrom to hit double-digit goals for the first time in his career. Another dreadful pass, this time by Weegar, allowed Stenlund and Luostarinen to go on the rush. The goal came 4:30 into the third and allowed the Cats to cruise the rest of the way.
A job well done by the Panthers, who bounced back from Thursday’s tough loss to the Philadelphia Flyers that ended a six-game winning streak. There have been times when the Cats haven’t given Anthony Stolarz much to work with as far as goal support goes, but that wasn’t the case in this one. Florida exploded for four goals in the middle frame to extinguish the Flames, who had won six of seven and were coming off an impressive win in Tampa. The Cats are now 17-3 in their last 20 games. A tough two-game road trip, with stops in Dallas and Raleigh, awaits the Panthers this week.
Tinder & Ash
- New acqusition Vladimir Tarasenko earned First Star honors for his two goal, one assist performance. Tarasenko finished his second game in a Florida kit with two shots, two hits and a plus-three rating in 13:28 of ice time.
- Anthony Stolarz stopped 34 shots to win his 13th game of season, which is a new career-high. Stolarz came up big in the first period, with his sprawling save on Andrew Mangiapane keeping the game tied.
- Kevin Stenlund’s shorthanded goal was the third of his career. He joined Sam Reinhart, who has five, as the only other Cat to score down a man this season.
- Turnover prone former Panthers MacKenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau had tough afternoons. Weegar went an ugly minus-four and Huberdeau finished minus-three.
- The Panthers lost Aaron Ekblad and Evan Rodrigues during the game. Ekblad departed in the first after colliding with Tarasenko. Rodrigues left in the second after blocking a shot.
- Ekblad was playing in his 672nd game, which moved him past Huberdeau for the second-most games played in the history of franchise. Aleksander Barkov is the leader with 723.