A.J. Greer scored two goals and added an assist to spark the Florida Panthers to a 8-3 drubbing of the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.
Greer began the scoring 11 seconds into the game, finishing off a centering feed from Carter Verhaeghe from the right circle after Seth Jones dumped the puck into Nashville end following the opening faceoff. It was the third-fastest game-opening goal in franchise history and the fastest opening goal scored this season.
The Panthers quickly added another at 5:42 when Sam Reinhart forced a turnover behind the net and Evan Rodrigues found Uvis Balisnkis in the left circle. Juuse Saros made a glove save to deny Balinskis’ bid, but he couldn’t hold it, and Rodrigues was able to reel in the rebound and fire it into the yawning net.
Filip Forsberg would redirect Luke Evangelista’s backhand pass from the left corner past Daniil Tarasov to get the Predators on the board seventy seconds later. The second assist went to defenseman Roman Josi.
Nashville would draw even at 10:32 when Tyson Jost quickly centered from behind the net to Ozzy Wiesblatt and Fedor Svechkov cleaned up after Tarasov made a fine skate save on Wiesblatt’s backhander. The goal was Svechkov’s first of the season.
Less than a minute later, Florida regained the lead when Jesper Boqvist took a head-man pass from Gustav Forsling and accelerated by Brady Skjei before ripping a forehand shot along the ice into the back of the net. Reinhart collected his second helper of the frame on Boqvist’s third.
The Cats would tack on another before the end of the period, scoring at 15:46 to go back up by two. Jones carried into the offensive zone and dished off to Greer, who put a low shot on Saros. Svechkov tried to clear the rebound, but instead shot the puck into Sam Bennett’s leg with the carom giving Sam 2 an unassisted goal.
Florida’s lead would grow to three 1:24 into the second when Mackie Samoskevich took the puck from Brad Marchand and sent it around the end boards to Forsling at the left point. Forsling’s soft shot found space between the screening Anton Lundell and Nick Perbix, clipping the side of the defenseman on its way by a befuddled Saros. Forsling got his first of the his campaign, while Saros got the hook.
The rest of the middle stanza belonged to Tarasov, who stopped all 13 Nashville shots to keep the Panthers comfortably ahead.
An early third period tripping penalty on Jeff Petry allowed the Predators claw one back on the power play. Nick Blankenburg deflected Michael Bunting’s shot in with the secondary assist going to Erik Haula at 2:11 after Nashville cleanly won an offensive zone faceoff.
Greer would snuff out any hope of a comeback 2:41 later when he snapped home another pass from Verhaeghe after Carter retrieved the puck along the right side boards following a hard dump-around by Balinskis.
Reinhart collected his third point of the night at 8:33, easily converting a rebound created by Rodrigues’ hard shot off the leg pad of reliever Justus Annunen. Aaron Ekblad drew the second helper for sending eRod over the blue line with speed.
The final goal of the night would see Greer would spring Verhaeghe on breakaway that he finished off by roofing a backhand to halt a 13-game goalless drought with 7:11 left on the clock.
Mission accomplished! The Panthers headed right back to Broward after blowing away the hapless Predators to open another long run of home games. Florida returned to the win column after Saturday’s disappointing loss to Edmonton by shredding Nashville’s defense and scoring eight times at 5-on-5. It might get lost in all red lights, but Tarasov delivered yet another quality performance, finishing with 36 saves to earn his season win as a Panther.
The Five Hole
- A.J. Greer was named First Star for his two-goal, one assist, plus-five outing. The brace gave Greer six goals on the season, which equals the career-high he scored in 81 games last season.
- Sam Reinhart (1G/2A) extended his point streak to seven games. Reinhart has amassed six goals and seven assists during the sensational run. He is now tied with Brad Marchand with 13 goals.
- Carter Verhaeghe joined Greer and Reinhart in putting three points up on the score sheet. It was his first three-point game of the season. Verhaeghe lit the lamp for the first time since October 21.
- With a pair of helpers, Uvis Balinskis doubled his output on the season from two to four. Balinskis played 16:19 and was credited with one shot, three hits and two blocks.
- Florida’s other multi-point performers were Evan Rodrigues and Gustav Forsling, who each produced a goal and assist.
Stat Card
