Spencer Knight stopped 26 shots and his big blocker save on Jack Hughes in the top of the third round of the shootout set the stage for Anton Lundell’s decider as the Florida Panthers eked out a 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.
The 23-year-old Knight is 5-2-1 with a 2.70 GAA and one shutout in his last eight games.
After a rather tepid first forty minutes, the two second place teams in the Eastern Conference got after it in the third.
Jesper Boqvist opened the scoring at the 41-second mark after receiving a drop-dead gorgeous pass from Carter Verhaeghe, who threaded the needle from the left point to the former Devil. The on-rushing Boqvist beat Jacob Markstrom for his tenth of the season, with the second assist awarded to Nate Schmidt, from the edge of the right circle.
The Devils countered 1:46 later when hard-working Nico Hischier curled out from behind the net and his pass intended for Nathan Bastian fluttered in off Gustav Forsling. Timo Meier and Bastian picked up the helpers on yet another own goal against the Cats. Make it stop…
A couple of minutes after the goal, Matthew Tkachuk hammered Hischier to the ice and Jonas Siegenthaler and Hischier took exception to the hit. Both Devils went after Tkachuk, and a scrum ensued. When the smoke cleared, Tkachuk received a two-minute penalty for interference (um, the puck was there) and two more for roughing, while Siegenthaler received a two-minute penalty for roughing. A pretty clean hit, Tkachuk gets jumped by two guys and New Jersey goes the power play? Huh?
The Panthers killed it off and Knight made a super save on Hischier, who somehow got behind the defense, foiled a backhand shot from Tomas Tatar and denied a rebound attempt by Paul Cotter to help get the game to overtime, where the Devils out-shot the Cats 4-1.
Mr. Cotter went first in the shootout, pulling Knight out of position and finishing after a slick backhand to forehand deke. Aleksander Barkov answered by calmly finding open space near the inside of Markstrom’s right skate. The second round saw Jesper Bratt just miss with a rising backhand and Sam Reinhart shoot the puck right into Markstrom’s pad.
Knight blunted Hughes’ forehand with the edge of blocker sending the puck wide and then Lundell won it by cruising in on Markstrom and ripping a shot over his right shoulder. Game over, man! Game over!
Kudos to the tired Cats for finding a way to get the full two points a night after that third period debacle cost them in Philadelphia. With Sergei Bobrovsky getting the evening off, Knight delivered a strong start, which was exactly what his mates, who are still having a devil of a time finding the back of the net, needed in Newark. The Panthers will return home to host Detroit and Anaheim before heading out west for a four-game road trip against Pacific Division teams.
Fire & Brimstone
- First Star Spencer Knight upped his record to 8-6-1, lowered his GAA to 2.67 and boosted his save percentage to .896. Knight has won three of his last four starts.
- By moving to 4-0 this season in the shootout, the Panthers ended New Jersey’s six-game home winning streak and avoided getting swept by the Devils.
- Jesper Boqvist became the sixth Panther to hit double-digit goals, matching his career-high. He scored ten goals twice while he was with New Jersey.
- Nico Hischier reached 20-goals for the fourth straight season and for the fifth time overall since the Devils chose him first overall in the 2017 draft.
- Sam Reinhart saw his three-game goal streak halted and his six-game goal streak against New Jersey come to an end.
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