Brad Marchand continued his hot start to the season, scoring a pair to help the Florida Panthers topple the Los Angeles Kings by a 5-2 count at Crypto.com Arena.
After surrendering five-straight goals in Anaheim, the Cats opened the scoring in La La Land at the 2:06 mark when Jesper Boqvist fed Jeff Petry at the right point and he sent a shot towards the net that Sam Bennett deflected on Anton Forsberg. Forsberg was up to the initial task, but the rebound came back to Bennett and he was able to go backhand to forehand to put it home.
Anze Kopitar would tie the tilt at 9:23, tipping Adrian Kempe’s rising shot from the high slot past Sergei Bobrovsky with Marchand serving a two-minute sentence for holding the stick. The secondary assist on the power-play goal went to Quinton Byfield.
The Kings forged ahead 1:37 later when defense partners Mikey Anderson and Joel Edmundson played catch behind their own goal line before Anderson sprang grizzled veteran Corey Perry for a successful breakaway.
Marchand’s first of the night put the Cats back on equal footing with the Kings with 2:30 left in the first frame. After Aaron Ekblad sent the puck behind the Los Angeles net, Marchand was able to whack the puck away from Forsberg, take possession and come back in front to finish off a great individual play.
The Panthers would retake the lead 11:45 into the second off a counter, following a shot block by Niko Mikkola. After lugging the puck up the ice and then exchanging passes with Sam Reinhart as they entered the offensive zone, Carter Verhaeghe chipped a feed into the slot for Reinhart, whose backhander found the back of the net for the eventual game-winner.
Eetu Luostarinen broke up a Kings rush and poked the puck ahead to Anton Lundell, who completed the shorthanded breakaway by punching a hard wrister through Forsberg’s pads 8:41 into the third to provide much-needed breathing room.
Marchand would bag his second of the night when Mikkola stepped-up and kept Los Angeles from exiting its zone. The 37-year-old collected the loose puck and beat Forsberg with a wicked wrister from the right circle to complete the scoring with 7:24 left on the clock.
After a bit of a rocky start that saw Marchand come up big late in the opening frame to tie it, the Panthers outscored the Kings 3-0 over the final forty minutes to secure just their second win on the road. Despite giving up a pair, Bobrovsky loomed large in the first, making 11 saves to keep his team close as the Kings were buzzing. The Cats battened down the hatches the rest of the way, limiting the home side to six shots in the second and seven in third, allowing them to pull away. The road trip continues Saturday night in San Jose.
The Five Hole
- Once again, we lead off with Brad Marchand, who has lit the lamp four times during a three-game goal-scoring streak. Marchand earned First Star honors for his second two-goal outing of the season. Bad Brad has points in 11 of the 13 games he’s suited up for.
- Anton Lundell notched Florida’s second shorthanded goal of the season. The marker made him the second Panther to reach double-digit points after Marchand.
- Two good defensive plays led to the first points of the season for defenseman Niko Mikkola, who finished the game with two assists and a hit. Mikkola and partner Seth Jones each went +3 on the night.
- Sam Reinhart has scored a goal in five of the last six games, and he became the first Cat to notch two game-winners.
- Evan Rodrigues registered a game-high five shots on goal and A.J. Greer was credited with a game-high five hits.
Stat Card
