The Florida Panthers bounced back from Thursday night’s disappointing home loss to the Los Angeles Kings with a 7-4 win over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.
Jonathan Huberdeau (1G/2A) and Vincent Trocheck (2G/1A) each had three points to power Florida’s offense to a season-high seven goals.
Nick Bjugstad delivered the key goal, scoring on a beautiful backhand 28 seconds after Viktor Arvidsson tied the game at two in the second period.
Trocheck beat Pekka Rinne 29 seconds after that on breakaway to send the venerable goalie to the bench for backup Juuse Saros.
Aleksander beat Saros two minutes after he entered the game, stuffing home a power-play goal after an offensive zone faceoff win.
Jaromir Jagr opened the scoring by deflecting Keith Yandle’s point shot 4:24 into the first period, Jussi Jokinen finished a stellar Trocheck pass on a early second period power play and Trocheck, playing in his 200th NHL game, iced the game with an empty-netter.
Arvidsson notched his first career hat-trick, one of the goals was shorthanded, and Romas Josi collected Nashville’s other goal, a first period power-play marker.
Roberto Luongo finished with 26 saves to pick up his 451st career win. Rinne made 8 stops on 12 shots before giving way to Saros, who finished with 18 saves.
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