The struggle buggy couldn’t make it all the way up the mountain as the Florida Panthers offensive woes continued to bedevil in a 3-1 to the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.
Devin Toews tallied twice and had a hand in Mikko Rantanen’s clinching empty-netter and Mackenzie Blackwood made 26 saves for the Avalanche, who are on a torrid 7-0-1 run.
Carter Verhaeghe gave the Panthers the lead with 4:03 left in the first period. Anton Lundell poked the puck out of a center ice scrum and broke away 2-on-1 with Verhaeghe. Verhaeghe crossed to Lundell and then beat Blackwood off the return pass to end a seven-game goalless drought. Jesper Boqvist was credited with second assist on Verhaeghe’s tenth of the season.
Toews evened the score when he took a pass from Casey Mittelstadt and let go of a rising wrister that struck the cross bar and then Sergei Bobrovsky’s backside and found its way into the net at with 1:42 remaining in the second period.
The defenseman would beat Bobrovsky from long range again 8:54 into the third. This time Toews’ wrister dipped on Florida’s keeper, who also had to deal with the presence of Juuso Parssinen in front. Parssinen drew the secondary assist while the primary on the game-winner went to former Bolt Ross Colton.
The Panthers tested Blackwood 14 times in the wide-open final frame that saw the teams combine for 30 shots on goal, but came up bone dry.
Rantanen scored from the other end of the ice, assists to Toews and Nathan MacKinnon, to extend his point streak to 14 games with 1:57 left on the clock and Bobrovsky off for an extra skater.
Florida was vastly outplayed during the first half of the game before evening things out and giving it a good go the rest of the way. They just can’t really score right now and failed to add to the lead or tie the game once Colorado forged ahead, wasting another quality start from Bobrovsky as they did last week against Carolina. The Cats will play their first-ever game at Salt Lake City’s Delta Center when they face the Utah Hockey Club on Wednesday.
Peaks & Valleys
- First Star Devon Toews produced the second multi-goal game of his NHL career. Toews finished the contest with four shots, three blocks and one hit. Monster game.
- Matthew Tkachuk registered a game-high seven shots, but could not solve Mackenize Blackwood, who is now 7-1-1 since joining the Avalanche via trade.
- Mikko Rantanen became just the third Finnish-born player in NHL history with multiple point streaks of 14 games, joining Teemu Selanne (3) and Jari Kurri (2).
- Tobias Björnfot went minus-two in his Florida debut in place of Niko Mikkola, who missed a fifth straight game. Björnfot logged 15:29 of ice time and was credited with one shot and one hit.
- Although Sergei Bobrovsky took the hard-luck loss, he upped his save percentage to .901 and lowered his GAA to 2.76. How about some f**king goal support, boys?
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