Nick Cousins delivered his multi-goal game of the season to power the Florida Panthers to a 5-3 win over the sagging New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.
Cousins opened the scoring 2:54 into the first after Sam Bennett forced a turnover from Jack Hughes. Matthew Tkachuk chipped the puck back into the offensive zone and Cousins took possession, cut in on a Akira Schmid and beat him on the backhand.
Tkachuk would pick up his second assist of the period when he took a pass from Bennett and fed Evan Rodrigues in the slot. Rodrigues hit the 10-goal by smacking a one-timer home from between the circles at 6:30 with Luke Hughes in the sin bin.
A tripping call on Kevin Stenlund opened the door for the Devils to halve the deficit and they did so at 11:45 when Jack Hughes’ shot from long range deflected off Gustav Forsling’s stick and handcuffed Anthony Stolarz. The helpers on the power-play goal went to Jesper Bratt and Luke Hughes.
New Jersey would equalize at the 11:01 mark of the second when Timo Meier won a loose puck in front after an offensive zone faceoff for an unassisted garbage goal.
The Panthers retook the lead 1:36 later on a beauty of a wrister from Eetu Luostarinen. After taking a cross from a harried Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dmitry Kulikov snapped a crisp pass to Luostarinen, who gained the zone and made a little move on Jonas Siegenthaler before sniping Schmid’s glove.
Cousins notched his second of the night at 5:33 of the third by redirecting in a shot from Forsling after Tkachuk dropped to the defenseman following an offensive zone draw in the right circle.
The Devils had one goal left in them and Colin Miller got it at 11:16 when he drove the puck through Stolarz with Bennett and Erik Haula battling in front. Bratt and Jack Hughes were credited with the assists, giving each player their second point of the tilt.
Sam Reinhart would clinch it with eight seconds remaining with an empty-netter with the lone assist going to Aaron Ekblad. Reinhart became the second Panther to ever reach 45 goals, joining Pavel Bure.
In handing interim head coach Travis Green a loss in his first game leading New Jersey, Florida upped its record in the second game of back-to-backs to an impressive 5-0-1 this season. The Cats became the first team in the NHL to hit 90 points, and they opened up a three-point lead over the Boston Bruins, who lost in overtime to Leon Draisaitl… I mean Edmonton, for first place in the Atlantic Division. After sweeping the road trip, the Panthers are a sparkling 23-8-2 away from Amerant Bank Arena.
Fire & Brimstone
- In going from three to five goals, Nick Cousins, who ended up with three shots, two hits and a block, earned First Star honors from the media. The game-winner was Cousins’ second of the season.
- Aaron Ekblad’s assist on Sam Reinhart’s goal was the 230th of his career, breaking the tie he was in with Robert Shevla for most by a defenseman in franchise history. Congrats!
- Timo Meier has scored a goal in each of the last three games and has five points in a four-game point streak.
- Matthew Tkachuk three helpers gave him an even 50 assists on the season. Tkachuk has amassed 16 goals and 44 points since the calendar changed to 2024.
- Anthony Stolarz stopped 21 shots to pick up his 12th win, which matches the career-high he set with Anaheim in 2021-22. Akira Schmid finished the game with 26 saves.
- The Panthers won the season series against the Devils two games to one.