Try as they might, the Florida Panthers couldn’t quite catch up to the Pittsburgh Penguins last night in a frustrating 5-3 loss, their first of the season at Amerant Bank Arena.
Sidney Crosby opened the scoring and closed the door on the Cats with a pair of power-play goals. The legendary Penguin also had an assist to earn First Star honors.
A tripping penalty on Jeff Petry led to Crosby’s first marker 6:24 into the tilt. After Erik Karlsson ripped a shot towards the net that struck Bryan Rust, Evgeni Malkin and Rust joined forces to work the puck free to set up Crosby’s wrister, which easily beat a swimming Sergei Bobrovsky, from the left circle.
The Penguins doubled the lead 6:36 into the second when Crosby fed Karlsson and he sent a soft shot into the slot where it deflected off Eetu Luostarinen. Anton Lundell tried to whack it out of harm’s way, but he missed and Rickard Rakell was able to get just enough of the puck to send it into the net.
Florida would quickly take advantage of a hooking call on Connor Clifton, scoring 18 seconds after he was sent to the sin bin. Mackie Samoskevich took a return pass from Seth Jones and his back door feed deflected off Brad Marchand and by Tristan Jarry 1:50 after Rakell’s goal.
The Cats would carry most of the play for the rest of the period, but they fell two back again when rookie Ben Kindel and Tommy Novak worked some give-and-go magic that resulted in the former one-timing in a shot at 15:24 after getting a second pass from the latter for his second NHL goal. The goal came in large part to a turnover by Jesper Boqvist.
Sam Reinhart would notch Florida’s second power-play goal 2:24 into the third to halve the deficit. Reinhart beat Jarry from the left circle after getting the puck back from Samoskevich, with the secondary helper again going to Jones.
With the teams back to 5-on-5, Pittsburgh would answer back just 2:25 later. Karlsson’s aerial pass sailed by both Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer, finding the blade of Connor Dewar. Dewar got his shot through Jones and it somehow bounced off of Bobrovsky and into the net. That can’t go in…
The Panthers would close the gap to one for a third time at 11:06. Luostarinen and Lundell combined to get the puck down low in the Pittsburgh zone. Luostarinen then sent a backhand pass back into the slot to Marchand, who went forehand to backhand for his second goal of the night.
Unfortunately Aaron Ekblad would get whistled for interference 28 seconds after the goal, and Crosby would need just 15 seconds to put the game out of reach.
The Penguins carved up Florida’s penalty kill with Karlsson going to Rust, who slipped a short pass to Malkin, who backhanded it down low to Rakell, who sent a cross-ice pass to Crosby, who fired it by Bobrovsky.
Jarry would come up with a huge pad save on Marchand with 6:20 to go, denying the veteran the hat trick and keeping his team comfortably ahead by two.
The Cats put forth a good effort for most part, vastly outshooting the Penguins 37-16, but they were their own worst enemy on this night, which also included the first off performance from Bobrovsky this season. Pittsburgh converted both of their two power-play chances, got some puck luck on the Rakell and Dewar goals and took advantage of a big mistake by Boqvist on Kindel’s strike. Florida scored twice in the third, only to see each goal matched in a matter of seconds. That’s simply not a winning recipe. The homestand continues Saturday when the Vegas Golden Knights come to town.
The Five Hole
- Brad Marchand matched Sidney Crosby with two goals and was named the game’s Second Star. Marchand has found the score sheet in seven of nine games played and leads the team in goals (5) and in points with 10. He is tied with Anton Lundell and Seth Jones with five assists.
- Speaking of Lundell, in addition to his helper on Marchand’s second goal, he won a career-high 15 faceoffs and was credited with three shots, a block and two hits.
- Mackie Samsokevich set up two goals for the second time this season. The first was in the opener against Chicago.
- Eetu Luostarinen picked up his first helper of the season and dished out a team-high four hits.
- A night to forget for Sergei Bobrovsky, who finished the game with an ugly .688 save percentage.
Stat Card
