Evan Rodrigues’ goal in the fifth round of the shootout lifted the Florida Panthers to a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, extending the Cats winning streak to seven games.
The Flyers served notice that this wouldn’t be easy by opening the scoring 4:57 into the first when Joel Farabee rapped in a rebound after Scott Laughton chipped the puck in front after Sergei Bobrovsky stopped Bobby Brink’s intial shot.
It would take until early in the second for the Panthers to equalize. Aleksander Barkov’s backhand pass sent Rodrigues down the left side and he pulled up and fed back to Nate Schmidt, who stepped into the puck and sent it screaming past Samuel Ersson’s glove at the 5:32 mark.
The Panthers would get another goal from a defenseman 3:08 later when Dmitry Kulikov worked a slick passing play with Rodrigues and moved into the slot to drive home the return pass. The secondary assist on Kulikov’s second of the season went to Sam Reinhart.
Journeyman Anthony Richard knotted the score at the 13-minute mark by beating Bobrovsky through traffic with a wrister from long-range with the assists going to Travis Konecny and Rasmus Ristolainen.
Carter Verhaeghe set up Sam Bennett for a one-timer from just off the right post with a pretty pass with 5:04 left in frame to quickly give the Cats the lead back. Niko Mikkola drew the secondary assist on the go-ahead goal which gave Bennett his 300th NHL point.
Philadelphia would come up with the only goal of the third period at 9:47. Garnet Hathaway carried in off the rush and his backhand centering pass meant for Ristolainen deflected in off the skate blades of Uvis Balinskis. Laughton and Nick Seeler got the helpers on the puck-luck assisted goal.
After Bobrovsky came up (huge) with six saves and Ersson made three in overtime, a shootout was needed to decide the bonus point.
Barkov’s opened the skills competition with a beautiful backhand conversion which was matched by former Panther Owen Tippett’s forehead along the ice in the bottom of the second round. Rounds three and four belonged to the goalies before Rodrigues dazzled on the backhand to put the Panthers back on top. Bobrovsky would end it by denying Morgan Frost’s low shot.
A First Star turn from Rodrigues and a strong 34-save effort from Bobrovsky, who made four additional saves in the shootout, were just enough for the Cats to extend their winning streak despite getting a stern test from John Tortorella’s Flyers. The Panthers are off until Tuesday when the host of the first of two consecutive games against the New Jersey Devils.