The Florida Panthers ugly losing streak reached four as a late comeback bid stalled in a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
First Star Ivan Provorov opened the scoring with a power-play marker 5:08 into the action and then drew the secondary assist on Mathieu Olivier’s deflection goal midway through the second.
After Boone Jenner put the Blue Jackets comfortably ahead by three 1:41 into the third, the Panthers would put a scare into the home team before ultimately falling short.
Aaron Ekblad took a pass from Sam Reinhart and let go of shot from the left point that was deftly deflected in by Niko Mikkola to end Jet Greaves’ shutout bid with 10:52 remaining in regulation. It was the second goal of the season for Mikkola.
A holding call on Kirill Marchenko led to Sam Bennett’s power-play goal at 14:44 which pulled the Cats within a goal. Matthew Tkachuk fed Ekblad at the point and he dished to Bennett, who loaded up and blew a wrister by Greaves from the high slot.
It looked like Gustav Forsling tied the tilt with 2:55 left on the clock, but Jesper Boqvist was ruled to have incidently interfered with Greaves and the goal was waved off after challenge by Rick Bowness. Tough, tough call…
Provorov would collect his third point of the night shortly after, combining with Charlie Coyle to set up Olivier’s clinching empty-netter.
The reeling Panteras will finish off what looks be a season-killing four-game road trip tonight in Detroit.
The Five Hole
- Sam Bennett’s power-play marker gave him four goals over the last four games. Bennett was one of four players to finish with a game-high four shots. Sam Reinhart, Ivan Provorov and Sean Monahan were the others.
- Speaking of Reinhart, he became the first Panther to hit 30 assists this season. That’s five-straight seasons of 30 or more helpers for Reinhart.
- Niko Mikkola lit the red light for the first time since December 23, when he scored in 5-2 win over Carolina. The big man played 19:24 and was credited with two shots and a hit.
- Daniil Tarasov took his tenth regulation loss of the season. Tarasov turned aside 24 of 27 shots faced.
- Tomas Nosek logged 12:44 of ice time and won 7-of-11 faceoffs in his second appearance of the campaign.
Stat Card
