The Florida Panthers opened its preseason slate by posting 3-2 and 6-2 victories over the Nashville Predators at Amerant Bank Arena.
In the matinee, Spencer Knight stopped all 19 shots faced before departing halfway through and Sam Bennett, Hunter St. Martin and Rasmus Asplund scored in a 7:10 span of the second period as Florida built a three-goal and had to hold on as Cole Smith and Joakim Kemmell solved prospect Cooper Black in the third.
Bennett took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk and slung a backhand from the lower left circle through Matt Murray to open the scoring at 4:13. The second assist went to defenseman Mikulas Hovorka.
Displaying the chemistry they showed during the last week’s Rookie Showcase in Nashville, St. Martin quickly fired a shot home after a determined Gracyn Sawchyn stripped Luke Prokop of the puck 1:31 later.
Florida’s final goal of the game came at the 11:23 mark when Justin Sourdif collected a loose puck in the left corner and fed Asplund for a one-timer that second goalie Ethan Haider had no chance on. A big hit by Oliver Okuliar below the goal line allowed Sourdif to take possession.
Okuliar led the Cats forwards with three shots; Aaron Ekblad led the team with four and Black finished with five saves on seven shots in his 29:08 of action.
The Panthers exploded for four goals in the first period of the evening affair to cruise to an easy 6-2 win.
Sam Reinhart opened the scoring by tapping in a back door pass from Aleksander Barkov after Carter Verhaeghe’s cross for a power-play goal at 4:34.
A second man-advantage goal followed at 7:36 when rookie Josh Davies took a return pass from Mike Benning and beat Scott Wedgewood with second assist going to Patrick Giles.
Florida’s power-play clicked a third time when Jesper Boqvist deflected brother Adam’s shot past Wedgewood at 14:46. Reinhart collected the secondary helper for his second point of the period.
Gustav Forsling got the game’s first even-strength goal when he picked off a clearing attempt and sent a shot past a beleaguered Wedgewood from the left point with 3:45 left in the frame.
Jake Lucchini stopped the bleeding by scoring on Sergei Bobrovsky unassisted at 17:53 to get the Predators on the board.
Bobrovsky, who made six saves, would give way to Chris Driedger at 10:31 and Giles would come up with the only goal of the middle frame at 16:40 when he broke down the middle to finish off a really pretty centering pass from Davies.
After setting up his big brother earlier in the tilt, defenseman Adam Boqvist got a goal of his own when he beat a screened Wedgewood after taking a short pass from Jonah Gadjovich midway through the third.
Steven Stamkos would complete the scoring with a power-play goal from Luke Evangelista and Ryan O’Reilly with 3:57 left in the game.
Driedger finished his stint with 18 saves on 10 shots. Welcome back, CD60!
Two wins. Another St. Martin goal. A strong performance from Knight in Game 1. A First Star performance from free agent acquisition Adam Boqvist in Game 2. That’s what I call a stellar start to the preseason.