Spencer Knight made 29 saves and Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell scored in the shootout to lift the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Amerant Bank Arena.
Knight made confident-lloking blocker saves on Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby, the players who scored on him regulation, after Tristan Jarry denied Aleksander Barkov to open the shootout.
After a scoreless first period that saw the Cats kill off a high-sticking double minor on Reinhart, Florida grabbed the lead early in the second.
Barkov exchanded passes with Reinhart along the right side boards before feeding Gustav Forsling, whose shot from the point eluded a screened Jarry 36 seconds into the frame.
The Penguins would knot the score at the 11:09 mark, just five seconds after A.J. Greer received four minutes for high-sticking. Sidney Crosby won the ensuing faceoff back to Matt Grzelcyk, then took a fabulous backhand pass from Bryan Rust and smacked a one-timer past Knight. It was Crosby’s 30th career goal against the Panthers.
The Cats retook the lead with a power-play goal 8:48 into the third when Matthew Tkachuk deflected Carter Verhaeghe’s shot by Jarry after Adam Boqvist strided in from the right point and crossed to Verhaeghe, who let go from the high slot. Tkachuk had just retuned from serving a ten-minute misconduct.
A roughing call on Sam Bennett with 2:01 left in regulation opened the door for the Penguins and they would tie the tilt at 19:20. Pittsburgh pulled Jarry with 1:15 to go to make it a 6-on-4 advantage and Rakell converted from the bumper position to complete a tic-tac-toe passing play involving Evgeny Malkin and Michael Bunting.
Both teams had their chances, and each hit the post, during an exciting overtime stanza that saw Knight and Jarry each have to make three saves to prolong the game.
Reinhart and Lundell would beat Jarry blocker-side to give the Panthers a much-needed win after Thursday night’s frustrating loss to Carolina. The Panthers matched the Maple Leafs with 50 points, however, the Buds hold a game in hand and remain atop the Atlantic. Florida is still having trouble finishing, but they found a way to get two points. They’ll get a couple days off before heading out on the road to face Colorado and Utah.
Emperors & Snares
- In addition to scoring the clinching shootout goal, First Start Anton Lundell finished with a game-high six shots and won 8-for-15 on his faceoffs.
- Third Star Spencer Knight upped to his record to 7-6-1 with one of his better performances of the season. Knight made a dandy of a toe-save on Michael Bunting in the third and a strong stop on Bryan Rust in overtime.
- Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart each picked up their 24th assist of the season Gustav Forsling’s game-opening goal.
- Tristan Jarry looked like he was fighting the puck, but the veteran keeper found a way to make 31 saves to help his depleted team earn a big point on the road.
- The Panthers went 1-for-3 on the power play while Penguins converted twice on their seven man-advantage chances.
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