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Lundell helps Panthers claim 6-3 win over host Hurricanes

Nov 29, 2024; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell (15) celebrates his goal against the Carolina Hurricanes during the third period at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images

The Florida Panthers posted a second-straight impressive win by doubling up the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 at Lenovo Center in Black Friday matinee action from Raleigh.

After Anton Lundell prevented the Hurricanes from moving the puck up the boards, Jesper Boqvist gave the Panthers an early lead at 2:26 when he knocked the puck out of the air and slung a backhand shot past Spencer Martin with towering Niko Mikkola screening in front. The goal came after an effective shift that saw the Cats refuse to let Carolina exit their zone.

The Hurricanes tied the tilt 3:16 later while enjoying a man-advantage. Sebastian Aho took a drop from Shane Gostisbehere in his own end and then spotted Seth Jarvis behind the defense and hit him with a bullet of a pass. Jarvis broke in on Sergei Bobrovsky and beat him up high on the backhand.

Aleksander Barkov would set up Sam Reinhart for his NHL-leading 18th of the season at the 9:05 mark. Barkov picked off Brent Burns clear up the right boards and sent the puck to a wide-open Reinhart, who had gobs of time and space to work with in the slot and easily solved Martin.

Carter Verhaeghe staked Florida to a two-goal lead 2:16 after that when he took a short pass from Matthew Tkachuk and sped up ice, bypassing Aho along the way, and then fired a wrister from just above the right circle that first went between the legs of defenseman Dmirty Orlov before it dented the twine behind an unready (and unsteady) Martin. The second assist went to Aaron Ekblad.

The Panthers would survive a couple of late, and preposterous, tripping calls on Dmitry Kulikov and Verhaeghe, and a really dumb interference penalty on Ekblad, who whacked Aho’s stick out off his hands for no reason, to get to the dressing room up by two.

Florida played a solid second period, but both goals in the frame when to the home side, erasing the two-goal advantage.

Scott Walker’s long-range marker, from Jack Roslovic and Gostisbehere, 6:24 into the period halved the deficit. Then it was Eric Robinson from in front of the net, redirecting Jalen Chatfield’s shot through heavy traffic to make it 3-3 with 2:42 remaining. Rookie Jackson Blake drew the secondary helper on Robinson’s goal.

Fourth liner A.J. would deliver the go-ahead goal 4:58 into the third. Uvis Balinskis sent the puck to Greer in the center of the neutral zone and he burst over the Carolina line before snapping off a shot that eluded Martin to give the Panthers the lead back.

Lundell would provide a huge insurance goal 4:10 later with Boqvist off for high-sticking. After Lundell broke up Blake’s attempted cross, Ekblad took possession and headmanned to Luostarinen, who was off to the races with Lundell. Luostarinen decided to shoot on the 2-on-1 break and was denied by Martin. Fortunately, the rebound went right to Lundell and he deposited it into the back of the net, giving him his eighth goal.

Luostarinen added a second assist when he combined with Evan Rodrigues on Sam Bennett’s empty-netter with seven seconds left on the clock.

Three goals in both the opening and closing frame allowed the Panthers to bring Carolina’s nine-game home winning streak to an end. Consecutive quality victories over the Maple Leafs and Hurricanes have the Cats back in first place with a tenuous one-point lead over Toronto, who has two games in hand. Florida will host Carolina this afternoon at Amerant Bank Arena to complete the difficult back-to-back.

Category Five

  • After going pointless in six-straight games, First Star Anton Lundell has produced a goal and an assist in two of Florida’s last three games. Lundell is one of seven Panthers to hit double-digit assists over the team’s first 24 games.
  • Carter Verhaeghe notched his seventh of the season to extend his point streak to four games. Verhaeghe has produced three goals and six points during the run, which started with a goal in the 7-4 loss to Colorado.
  • Defenseman Aaron Ekblad played his 700th NHL game and he wrapped it up with two assists, one shot, and three blocks while logging a game-high 27:17 of ice time.
  • Another milestone was reached by Carolina blueliner Scott Walker, whose second period goal was his 100th point in the league. It took him 336 games to reach the plateau.
  • Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 stops to get the win while Spencer Martin took the loss, finishing with 24 saves.

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