Jesper Boqvist bunted Mackie Samoskevich’s pass out of the air and past Spencer Knight midway through the third period to lift the Florida Panthers to an exciting 3-2 opening night win over the Chicago Blackhawks at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Cats carried the play from the get-go, but Knight’s sharp goaltending allowed the Blackhawks to take the lead when Frank Nazar scored the first goal of the 2025-26 season on a breakaway 10:03 into the first period. After receiving the puck along the boards from Knight, Teuvo Teravainen chipped into the middle of the ice where Tyler Bertuzzi slapped it by Niko Mikkola to spring Nazar, who beat Sergei Bobrovksy with a low forehand shot.
Florida quickly replied to tie the score 1:03 later. Luke Kunin dropped the puck to Gustav Forsling at the left point. His shot was blocked by Sam Rinzel, but Jonah Gadjovich was able to backhand to a wide open A.J. Greer, who slung the puck through Knight’s body into the back of the net.
The Panthers would take the lead at the 14:08 mark while a man up. After entering the Chicago zone on the rush, the puck found Samoskevich after a Knight poke-check. Samsokevich tried a shot that was blocked. The puck came right back to him and he fed in front to Carter Verhaeghe and he went upstairs on Knight as the former Cat desperately tried to take up as much net as possible, but lost his footing.
After being outshot 17-3 in the first, the Blackhawks came out ready for the second and evened it up when Nazar sent Bertuzzi and Teravainen away on a 2-on-1 break and the latter ripped the former’s pass home 1:09 into the frame. The goal came shortly after Bobrovsky stopped Ilya Mikheyev on a breakaway, so a lax start by the Cats to say the least.
Bobrovksy, who finished with 17 stops, would not yield again and his former protégé continued to shine as the Panthers played a strong third period to come away with two points.
The game-winner came off the rush with 10:20 left in regulation. After a taking a head-man pass from Forsling, Evan Rodrigues dumped the puck in off the left side backboards. Samoskevich chipped the resulting carom up in the air and Boqvist was able to convert with the shaft of his stick, much to the delight of the sellout crowd in Sunrise.
No Barkov, no Tkachuk, no Nosek, no problem, or at least not that much of a problem. On a night when they could’ve easily been distracted as they raised another banner to the rafters and found a way to lose to a hot goalie, all-in-all the Panthers delivered a pretty complete effort and would’ve won going away if not for Knight, who made 34 saves and was the best player on the ice.
The Five Hole
- Luke Kunin had an impressive debut, finishing with three shots on goal and a plus-one rating in 8:09 of ice time. Kunin looked fast and hungry and only a couple big blocker saves by Spencer Knight kept him from getting his first as a Panther.
- A.J. Greer earned Second Star honors for scoring Florida’s first goal of the season and engaging Nick Foligno in a first period fight.
- In addition to his assist on Greer’s goal, Gustav Forsling made a heady play to bounce the puck off the boards to himself, allowing the Panthers to exit their zone and score the game-winning goal.
- Carter Verhaeghe notched the team’s first power-play goal of 2025-26 and finished the tilt with a game-high five shots.
- Anton Lundell had a strong game in the dot, winning 14 of the 18 draws he took. Lundell’s 19:42 TOI was second among Florida’s forwards behind Brad Marchand’s 20:10.
Stat Card
