Aleksander Barkov notched the only conversion and Sergei Bobrovsky was perfect in the shootout to lead the Florida Panthers to a 4-3 comeback win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Amerant Bank Arena.
After a putrid game in Washington and a lousy start against the Penguins, the Panthers jumped on top when Gustav Forsling swatted the puck away from Bryan Rust and the puck bounced off the side boards to Sam Reinhart. Reinhart cut across the left circle and fired a rising shot that beat Tristan Jarry at the 11:25 mark.
The Penguins shook off the goal and continued to dominate the period, tying the tilt up at 14:26 when Erik Karlsson’s crisp pass found Rust in front and he deked Nate Schmidt to the ice before solving Bobrvosky with an impressive backhand shot that caught the far side of the net. Sidney Crosby drew the secondary assist on the power-play goal, which came with Anton Lundell off for holding.
With time running out in the frame, Uvis Balinskis failed to get the puck in deep and then took an injurious tumble on the subsequent 2-on-1 break that ended with Crosby saucering a pass to Rust, who somehow managed to slap the puck past Bobrovksy with one hand on his stick at 19:25. Rickard Rakell was credited with the second assist on Rust’s 25th goal.
The Panthers were more engaged to start the second, but a hooking penalty on Evan Rodrigues, which prevented Kevin Hayes from getting a quality scoring chance, put Pittsburgh on another power play.
Already up a man, the Penguins got a big break when Nico Sturm broke his stick, which allowed the visitors to move the puck around with ease. Rust sent a pass to Evgeni Malkin and he hammered a low one-timer off Bobrovksy and in from the left dot at 6:51 to put Pittsburgh up by two. Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk was credited with the second helper.
A hooking call on the involved Rust gave the Cats their first power play and they took advantage to halve the deficit. After receiving the puck from Bobrovsky, Barkov rounded his own net to start the rush and then sent a routine pass over to Reinhart. Florida’s leading goal-scorer skated through Blake Lizotte and Kris Letang before making a cut to get by Kris Letang and finished with a wrister through Jarry’s five-hole 2:34 after Malkin’s marker, giving him thirty-five goals on the season.
The Panthers continued to pressure and finally came up with the equalizer with 5:31 remaining in regulation. After taking a short pass from Schmidt, Eetu Luostarinen went back against the grain to set up Lundell for a successful one-timer from the right circle to knot the score. Just a filthy piece of work from Luostarinen. Wow!
Each team had two shots on goal in overtime, but Bobrovsky and Jarry would not yield so the game headed to the shootout.
Barkov went first and calmly glided in on Jarry before going to his backhand to whip the puck between the keeper’s pads. That would be all the Panthers needed as Bobrovsky denied the entirety of Pittsburgh’s first line with stops on Rakell and Crosby before making a sprawling save on Rust to end it.
Props to the Panthers, who could’ve easily folded after Pittsburgh’s second power-play goal of the night put them down a pair. Florida took the game over from that point, getting the key rush goal from Reinhart and then killing off a too many men on the ice along the way to set the stage for the sensational Luostarinen to Lundell hook-up. The Cats will get some much-needed rest before hosting the Utah Hockey Club for the first time on Friday.
Emperors & Snares
- Sam Reinhart earned the First Star nod for his brace. Reinhart became the first Panther to hit both 35 goals and 75 points this season. He matched Kris Letang with a game-high five shots on goal.
- In addition to his perfect shootout, Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves over the first 65-minutes to pick up his 30th win of the campaign. Bobrovsky was very busy in the opening stanza, when his team was out-shot by a whopping 16-4 margin.
- By virtue of assisting on both of Bryan Rust’s first period goals, Sidney Crosby only needs to accumulate two more points to clinch his 20th point-per-game season.
- Gustav Forsling delivered a strong plus-two performance, finishing with an assist, four shots on goal, three hits and a block in 29:11 of ice time.
- This was a closely played season series between the Cats and Penguins with all three games needing extra time. Florida amassed five points while Pittsburgh collected three.
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