Missing three regulars, the Florida Panthers got blanked 4-0 by Frederik Andersen and the Carolina Hurricanes in a lackluster performance at PNC Arena.
A competitive first period, that featured quality scoring chances from Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen, ended on a sour note when Jordan Staal took a stretch pass from Jaccob Slavin to gain the Panthers zone. Josh Mahura swept the puck away from Staal, but it went right to Seth Jarvis, who snapped a perfectly placed shot past Sergei Bobrovsky at 19:11.
Martin Necas doubled the lead 2:46 into the second when he ripped in a shot from the right circle while falling down after Bobrovsky denied a hard drive by Dmitry Orlov from the opposite flank. Jake Guentzel drew the secondary assist for his first point as a member of the Hurricanes.
Carolina fans enjoyed another first at the 8:27 mark when Evgeny Kuznetsov took a pass from Jalen Chatfield and calmly wristed a dart by Bobrovsky for his first goal with his new team.
There would be no three-goal rally on this night, as the motivated Hurricanes limited the Cats to a meager four shots on goal in the final frame.
Andrei Svechnikov completed the scoring into an empty net with 4:18 remaining on the clock with the lone assist going to Slavin.
Andersen finished with 21 saves to post his first shutout of the season. The veteran keeper is 3-0 since returning from a lengthy stint on injured reserve.
Florida’s output of 21 shots matched a season-low.
This was definitely one to forget. Credit to Carolina, who were clearly the better team last night. If the Panthers could’ve grabbed the lead in the first, maybe the outcome would’ve been different… maybe not. That said, splitting games in Dallas and Raleigh is nothing to sneeze at. Despite the loss, the Cats remain atop the NHL standings and will return to Broward County to open a spread out two-game homestand against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Tarps & Shutters
- On the strength of back-to-back shutouts, the Hurricanes won the season series against the team the swept them in the Eastern Conference Final, two games to one. I’ll take the sweep.
- Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 of shots 34 faced to keep the Panthers within striking distance throughout. Unfortunately, there was just no rally in his teammates.
- Gustav Forsling saw his season-high five-game point streak come to an end. Forsling logged a game-high 23:12 TOI and was credited with one shot and four hits.
- Frederik Andersen is a perfect 5-0 with a 1.58 goals-against average and .934 save percentage at home this season. Andersen, who missed 50 games with a blood clotting issue, now sports a 7-1 record overall.
- Brandon Montour, Andrei Svechnikov and Dmitry Orlov each the finished tilt with a game-high four shots on goal.