The Florida Panthers choked again, blowing another two-goal third period, this time to the New York Islanders in what ended up being a 4-2 loss at UBS Arena.
After a scoreless first period that saw the Islanders out-shoot the disinterested Cats by a 12-1 margin, the Panthers opened the scoring one minute into the second when Gustav Forsling slapped a shot on net and Aleksander Barkov steered the rebound over to Sam Reinhart, who easily beat Ilya Sorokin for his second goal since February 2.
Forsling would draw a tripping penalty on Kyle MacLean 1:49 later that led to Florida’s final goal of the night.
After taking a pass from Eetu Luostarinen, Reinhart skated from the point into the right circle and fired a shot at Sorokin that struck the screening Barkov and bounced off his torso and over the helpless keeper with one second left on the power play.
Vitek Vanecek would finally yield his first goal as a Panther 6:29 into the third when Marc Gatcomb beat him on a heady wraparound play with the assists going to Tony DeAngelo and Pierre Engvall.
The inspired Islanders would knot the score 5:47 later when DeAngelo sent the puck behind his own net to defense partner Mike Reilly. Reilly bounced a perfect outlet pass off the boards to Maxim Tsyplakov, who had gotten behind Forsling, and he finished off the ensuing breakaway by solving Vanecek five-hole.
Noah Dobson notched the go-ahead goal 17 seconds after Tsyplakov lit the lamp. Anders Lee got a piece of a pass that Uvis Balinskis intended for Reinhart and Dobson claimed the loose puck in the neutral zone before speeding by Seth Jones and finishing with a wrist shot from close range.
The Panthers finally woke back up after pulling Vanecek for an extra attacker, but Sorokin withstood the late barrage, allowing Simon Holmstrom to hammer the final nail into the coffin with an empty-netter from Jean-Gabriel Pageau with seven seconds left on the clock.
Florida fell to 1-3 on its current road trip, which has taken an ugly turn after a big win in Toronto on Thursday. The disturbing losses to Montreal and the Islanders gave the Panthers their first consecutive defeats since January 13th. The Cats will return home for a few days for some much-needed rest and practice before they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.
Flotsam & Jetsam
- Despite the loss, Vitcek Vanecek was among Florida’s best players, finishing with 30 saves on 33 shots faced. Vanecek went 106:29 before giving up his first goal in red, blue, flat gold and white.
- First Star Noah Dobson scored his first game-winning goal of the season and was credited with four shots, three blocks and a hit in 21:58 TOI.
- In addition to producing a goal and an assist, Sam Reinhart finished with a game-high six shots. This was one of Reinhart’s better games since the 4 Nations Face-Off.
- Former Panther Mike Reilly had an assist and went plus-1 in 14:23 of ice time in his first game since November 1. He had been out of the lineup due to a concussion and then a heart procedure.
- Johan Gadjovich led the Panthers in two statistical categories with five hits and four blocked shots.
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