Sam Reinhart scored two goals and added an assist and Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves in the Florida Panthers slump-busting 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at Well Fargo Center.
Reinhart became the second player in franchise history to reach the 50-goal plateau when he scored into an empty net with 1:12 left in the game.
The former Sabre opened the scoring 10:34 into the action on the rush, when he took a cross-ice pass from Anton Lundell and beat Felix Sandstrom six-hole from the right circle. The second assist went to Brandon Montour, who lugged the puck over the blue line before dishing back to Lundell.
The Panthers extended the lead 55 seconds into the middle frame with the Flyers down a man. After taking an entry pass from Montour, Reinhart sent the puck over to the other side to a wide-open Vladimir Tarasenko and he swept a wrist shot over Sandstrom’s glove for his 20th goal of the season. That’s the eighth time in 12 NHL seasons that Tarasenko has reached the 20-goal mark.
The Flyers opened the third by outshooting the Cats 8-0, but it was Carter Verhaeghe who notched the next marker, at 4:43, to build a three-goal cushion. Adam Ginning’s shot from the left point missed wide and rattled off the boards to Montour, who poked it up to Sam Bennett. Verhaeghe gloved down Bennett’s aerial outlet pass and streaked into the offensive zone, bypassing Ginning before firing a shot at Sandstrom from the left faceoff dot. Sandstrom got his mitt on the puck, but could not seize it, giving Verhaeghe goals in back-to-back games.
Philadelphia would get aggressive by pulling Sandstrom when Niko Mikkola took a slashing penalty with 9:20 left on the clock. Bobby Brink ended Stolarz’s shutout bid 1:34 later when he cruised towards to the net to receive a pretty cross from bumper boy Ryan Poehling. Egor Zamula drew the secondary assist on the play.
The Panthers clamped down on the home side he rest of the way, limiting them to a single shot on goal, and Reinhart would come up with nifty 50, with the lone assist going to Eetu Luostarinen, to join Pavel Bure in Florida’s very exclusive 50-goal club.
After taking a point from the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, the depleted Cats scored four times on just 15 shots to snap its four-game losing streak. it wasn’t pretty, however, they found a way to get the job done without Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling and moved back into first place in the Atlantic Division. The Panthers will return home to tussle with the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the division on Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena.
Lift & Drag
- The Panthers posted its 25th win on the road, a team record. Their .716 road points percentage is tops in the league this season.
- In addition to getting Sam Reinhart to the 50-goal mark, the empty-netter gave the pending unrestricted free agent a new career high in points with 83. Reinhart finished the game with four shots and a block in 20:15 of ice time.
- Kudos to Anthony Stolarz, who picked up his 14th win of the season. Stolarz’s stellar 32-save effort earned him First Star honors from the media.
- Philadelphia rookies Ronnie Attard and Olle Lycksell matched Reinhart with a game-high four shots on goal.
- Playing in his second consecutive game after sitting out for a month, Steven Lorentz logged 10:29 TOI and was credited with a game-high seven hits.
- The Panthers managed to avoid the season-series sweep. Read more about it at Broad Street Hockey.