The Florida Panthers were their own worst enemy in last night’s hard-fought 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at Amerant Bank Arena.
Brent Burns’ goal, which deflected in off Aleksander Barkov, from along the right boards 35 seconds into game sent the Cats into a tailspin for most of the rest of the opening period that saw the Hurricanes out-shot them 16-6. Jaccob Slavin and Seth Jarvis were credited with the helpers.
The Panthers were much better the rest of the way and tied the tilt 2:17 into the middle frame.
Evan Rodrigues leveled Dmitry Orlov behind the net and then got the puck to Jesper Boqvist, who found Anton Lundell alone in front. Lundell flipped a backhander by Pyotr Kochetkov for his ninth of the season.
After failing to capitalize on subsequent Grade-A chances and take the lead, Matthew Tkachuk lost control and Sergei Bobrovsky lost focus, costing their team at least point.
With Jesperi Kotkaniemi breaking in on Bobrovsky, Tkachuk nudged him off his skates causing him to crash into the goaltender. Bobrovsky kept the puck from going in while Tkachuk stupidly continued to pin Kotkaniemi to the ice. A distracted Bob dropped his stick and stopped playing while Carolina didn’t and after Scott Walker shot struck Kotkaniemi, Slavin fired the rebound off Bobrovsky’s body for the eventual game-winner with 7:30 left in regulation.
Florida almost got the late equalizer with Bobrovsky off for an extra attacker, but Kochetkov made a nice skate save on Tkachuk’s drive from the left point and Barkov couldn’t get to the juicy rebound before it was swatted out of harm’s way.
The Hurricanes clinched at 19:32 when Martin Necas batted the puck out of the air and into the empty net after Sam Reinhart made a good play and deflected Andrei Svechnikov’s crossing pass. The second assist on Necas’ goal went to Jordan Staal.
The Panthers weren’t ready to start and despite leading in scoring chances (26-14) over the final forty minutes, again had trouble finishing as breakaways by Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe went unconverted. With a bevy of forwards needing to snap cold streaks, the Cats will get right back at it tonight when they close out the homestand against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Category Five
- Game-winning goal aside, Sergei Bobrovsky was spectacular, finishing with 37 saves, including 15 in the first period. Bobrovsky made his 269th appearance with the Panthers, passing John Vanbiesbrouck for second-most goalie games in franchise history.
- Jaccob Slavin earned First Start honors for his game-winning goal and primary assist on partner Brent Burns opening marker. What a jerk!
- Sam Bennett and Evan Rodrigues have each gone 12 games without a goal. Carter Verhaeghe’s goalless streak has hit seven games. Matthew Tkachuk’s drought is up to six games. Yikes…
- Gustav Forsling finished with a team-high four shots and was credited with two hits and a takeaway in 21:57 of ice time.
- Carolina keeper Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 25 of 26 shots to help the deserving Hurricanes avoid the season sweep.
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