Anton Lundell and Brad Marchand got the goals and Sergei Bobrovksy stopped 19 of 20 shots in the Florida Panthers 2-1 Thursday night win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Amerant Bank Arena.
After a scoreless first period that saw the Cats outshoot the visiting Flyers 13-6, Florida took advantage of interference call on Trevor Zegras to grab the lead 5:29 into second.
Bobrovsky gloved a long Philadelphia clear out of the air and played it Jeff Petry behind his net. Petry head-manned to Evan Rodrigues, who sped by Noah Cates as he entered the offensive zone before centering to Anton Lundell. Lundell slightly twisted his frame before a firing a shot by Dan Vladar for his first of the season.
Cates would get the goal back with 2:12 left in the frame when he popped in the rebound of Tyson Foerster’s hard wrister after winning a faceoff against Sam Bennett.
As they did on Tuesday against Chicago, the Panthers came up with the go-ahead goal in the third and were able to nurse it to a second straight victory.
After taking a entry pass from Petry, A.J. Greer passed off to Luke Kunin and he rifled a shot wide of the net. The rebound came out the other side to Marchand, who was stationed high on the left boards. Marchand snapped off a rising shot that sailed over the kneeling Vladar’s shoulder to provide the winning margin.
The Panthers held the Flyers to just five shots in the final frame and managed to stay out of the box in both the second and third period to limit Philadelphia’s scoring chances.
This was a similar performance to the opener, with Florida being the better team for the most part and again outshooting the opposition by a wide margin, while playing a cleaner game this time out. Credit Vladar, who made 32 saves for keeping his team close. The Cats will finish the homestand on Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.
The Five Hole
- In addition to lighting the lamp, Anton Lundell and Brad Marchand each finished the tilt with a game-high six shots on goal.
- Newcomers Jeff Petry and Luke Kunin each collected assists to post their first point as members of the Panthers.
- Evan Rodrigues and A.J. Greer are the only Cats to pick up points in each of the first two games of the 2025-26 campaign.
- Sergei Bobrovsky hasn’t seen a lot of pucks, but he looks dialed in. The 37-year-old is sporting a 1.51 goals against average and .923 save percentage.
- Florida’s penalty kill is a perfect five-for-five on the young season and they have scored a power-play goal in each of the first two games.
Stat Card
