Jonathan Huberdeau scored with 66 seconds remaining in regulation to give the Florida Panthers a much-needed 2-1 comeback win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.
The Panthers crafted the game-winning goal when defenseman Keith Yandle sent a long stretch-pass to Evgenii Dadonov along the boards near the Flyers blue line. Dadonov slung the puck back to captain Aleksander Barkov, who quickly hit Huberdeau on the other side and he fired in his tenth goal and team-leading 44th point
Huberdeau and Barkov combined to set up Mike Hoffman for a power-play goal 5:38 earlier to tie the tilt. Barkov tapped the puck over to Huberdeau after Dadonov couldn’t get a shot off from in-close and the crafty winger found Hoffman with a cross-ice pass that he buried with rookie goaltender Carter Hart caught out of position. Vindication for Hoffman, who failed to finish off a real pretty dish from rookie Henrik Borgstrom in the first period.
As they did in Friday night’s loss to Montreal, the Panthers fell behind by allowing an early goal. After taking a chip pass from Scott Laughton, Jordan Weal gained the zone and dropped the puck to Shanye Gostisbehere. Weal pushed back Alex Petrovic, creating space, and possibly a screen for South Florida native to snap the puck by James Reimer 1:45 into the first period.
That’s all the Flyers would get, as Reimer delivered one of, if not his best performance of the season thus far, stopping 34 shots to keep his club within striking distance until finally Hoffman lit the lamp. That was something the Cats really needed right after the disappointing defeat to the Canadiens, So kudos to Reimer for coming up big and not allowing a losing streak to get started.
Florida out-shot Philadelphia 36-35; matched them with 21 hits and overcame a poor face-off performance as the Flyers won 71% of the draws. The Panthers did a good job of staying out of the penalty box, only taking a pair of minors in the final frame.
The Cats have now won five of its last seven and head to Detroit for a Monday night matchup with the Red Wings seven points out of a playoff spots with two games in hand.
Video Recap (courtesy of NHL.com)