Sam Reinhart continued his red-hot start to the season by scoring twice and adding two assists in the Florida Panthers exciting 4-3 win over Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks.
After a slow start hurt the Cats in the first meeting between the two teams, Oliver Ekman-Larsson opened the scoring 39 seconds into the action. Evan Rodrigues plucked the puck off the left boards near the blue line and sped towards the goal before crossing to Reinhart, who fed Ekman-Larsson in the slot for the finish.
The Blackhawks evened the score at 7:04 when Lukas Reichel tracked down Connor Murphy’s missed shot and threw puck back in front to Jason Dickinson, who swept in a shot the just got through Sergei Bobrovsky’s five-hole.
A holding call on Bedard put the Panthers up a man and they quickly took advantage to re-take the lead at the 11:54 mark. Matthew Tkachuk took a pass from Ekman-Larsson and switched spots with the defenseman before letting go of a long shot that Reinhart deflected by Arvid Soderblom. Reinhart became the first Cat to hit double-digit goals and Tkachuk extended his point streak to six games.
Bedard made up for his transgression by stripping Kevin Stenlund of the puck and almost immediately lifting a shot over Bobrovsky, who ceded the top part of the net, with 56 seconds left in the frame.
Rodrigues would make another strong play on the boards to feed Gustav Forsling for a shot from the left point that resulted in Reinhart’s second of the afternoon. After Soderblom made the save on Forsling, Reinhart took the puck off his right pad before banking a shot in off the goalie’s left leg seven minutes into the second to put the Cats on top for a third time.
Bedard would strike again 1:18 later to forge a 3-3 tie. Seth Jones sprung the 18-year-old as the Panthers were changing and he broke in on Bobrovsky before easily beating him glove side.
An interference call put Florida on its fourth power play of the day and they converted a second time to produce the decisive goal 2:44 into the third. Tkachuk and Ekman-Larsson traded passes a couple of time before Matthew took a wrister from the right circle. Soderblom made the initial save and then stopped Reinhart on the rebound, but Carter Verhaeghe was there to pot the third chance to notch his second game-winner of the season.
Bobrovsky would make 13 saves in third to help secure the victory that gave Florida a four-game winning streak. The Panthers got a positive result from both sides of their special teams by going 2 for 4 on the power play and killing off all three Chicago’s man-advantage chances to split the season series with the pesky Blackhawks.
Deep Dish
- The win over the Blackhawks was Florida’s first against a Central Division foe this season after earlier losses to Minnesota, Winnipeg and Chicago.
- Sam Reinhart leads the league with nine multipoint games, and the team in scoring with 21 points. Reinhart tied Matthew Tkachuk and Jonathan Huberdeau for the fewest games (14) needed to reach 20 points in franchise history.
- After his brace, Connor Bedard is up to nine goals and 13 points in 13 games, with three of those goals coming against the Cats.
- Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves to collect his fifth win in a row and up his record to 8-3-1 this season.
- He didn’t produce a point, which ended a four-game streak, but Aleksander Barkov did match Carter Verhaeghe with a game-high six shots and won 14 of his 18 faceoffs.
- Stop by Second City Hockey for more on the Reinhart – Bedard showcase.