The Florida Panthers kicked off its five-game road trip with a well-earned 2-1 shootout victory over the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
Aleksander Barkov scored Florida’s only goal in regulation and then converted in the bottom of the first round of the shootout with a beautiful backhander.
Barkov has amassed ten points (5G/5A) during a seven-game point streak.
After having his initial pass blocked while on a rush, Sam Reinhart regathered and set up Barkov’s screaming one-timer from the right circle with 1:01 remaining the middle frame and later beat Joey Daccord in the second round of the skills competition to end it after Sergei Bobrovsky denied Seattle shooters Eeli Tolvanen and Oliver Bjorkstrand.
The Kraken opened the scoring 15:39 into the first period when Yanni Gourde took a pass along the right boards from former Panther Jared McCann and sprung Chandler Stephenson up the middle. Stephenson burst in on Bobrovsky and threw the puck over his glove.
With the Panthers having to deal with another goalie playing out of his head on the other end, Bobrovsky calmly went about his business and held the opposition to one goal for the second straight game.
Bobrovsky finished with 17 saves over the first sixty-five minutes, while Daccord made 32 stops to earn his outplayed team a point.
After getting shut out by Daccord in this building the last time out, the Panthers did just enough to pull two points from the tentacles of the Kraken, who were back on home ice after a successful 3-1 road trip against Metropolitan Division foes. The surging Cats stretched their point streak to seven games (6-0-1) and remain in first place in the Atlantic Division.
Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs
- First Star Aleksander Barkov has points in 17 of 19 games since returning from a lower-body injury on October 28. In addition to providing his team’s only goal, Barkov was credited with three hits, a block, a hit, and won 63.2% of his faceoffs.
- Sam Bennett (seven games) and Matthew Tkachuk (six games) saw their respective point streaks come to an end in the Emerald City. Bennett dished out a game-high six hits. Tkachuk had a rather quiet night.
- Sergei Bobrovsky tied Curtis Joseph (190) for seventh-most road wins in NHL history. Bobrovksy, who stopped Oliver Bjorkstrand on breakaway late in overtime, earned his 13th win and lowered his GAA to 2.81.
- After receiving his Stanley Cup ring on Monday, Brandon Montour registered a shot, two blocks and a hit in his first game against his former team since joining the Kraken.
- Defenseman Gustav Forsling fired off a game-high nine shots in 22:50 of ice time.