The Florida Panthers kicked off its 30th season with a well-played, but ultimately frustrating 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Florida opened with a strong first period, outshooting the Wild 14-5. Unfortunately, not many of those shots were of the Grade A variety and it was the home side that got the only goal.
After taking a pass from Matt Boldy near the blue line, Brock Faber snapped off a shot that eluded a screened Sergei Bobrovksy and pinged in off the far post at the 7:54 mark. Joel Eriksson Ek was credited with the second assist.
Eriksson Ek would give the Wild a two-goal lead 12:56 into the middle frame after Dmitry Kulikov took a tripping minor that put Minnesota on a 4-on-3 power play.
Following a win over Kevin Stenlund on an offensive draw, Erikkson Ek went to the front of the net, where he deftly batted the puck down and put it by Bobrovsky after Stenlund broke up Mats Zuccarello’s crossing pass attempt. Tough seven seconds for Stenlund. Kirill Kaprizov got the secondary helper.
The Panthers had plenty of chances to get on the board, but they just couldn’t get one to go. Rookie Mackie Samoskevich rang a shot of the cross bar and was denied again by Filip Gustavsson again in the second, with the big goaltender also stymieing Gustav Forsling on the rebound. Sam Reinhart was stopped on a bang-bang one-timer and couldn’t tuck a loose puck over the goal line in the third… you get the picture, just one of those nights.
Gustavsson earned First Star honors for his 41-save shutout while the Cats failed to earn a point despite playing pretty good road game. Other than the result, there was a lot to like about Florida’s effort.
The Panthers will try to get win number one when they visit the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
Spiders & Snakes
- Minnesota native Brock Faber notched his first career goal for the Wild in just his third NHL regular season game, and it turned to be the game-winner. Good stuff for the 21-year-old who played three seasons for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
- Matthew Tkachuk tried his damnedest to get the Panthers on the board, finishing with a game-high ten shots on goal in 21:29 of ice time.
- In addition to peppering the Wild with double-digit shots in each period, the Cats limited Minnesota to 19 shots on Sergei Bobrovsky.
- Filip Gustavsson became the fourth Wild goalie to earn a shutout in a season opener joining Darcy Kuemper (2014), Niklas Backstrom (2007) and Dwayne Roloson (2001).
- Forward Mackie Samoskevich had two shots and one takeaway in 14:36 in his NHL debut and 27-year-old defenseman Uvis Balinksis finished with a minus-1 rating, two shots, two hits and 4 PIM in 12:30 in his NHL debut
- For the other side of the game visit Hockey Wilderness.