The Florida Panthers were a handed a 2-1 defeat by the Seattle Kraken at Amerant Bank Arena in the first game back for both teams following the Four Nations Face-Off.
Kaapo Kakko opned the scoring 6:32 into thje first period with a power-play goal. After Vince Dunn made a nice play to hold the puck in the zone, Jaden Schwartz bounced it off the boards to Shane Wright, who centered to Matty Beniers. Beniers passed off to Kakko in the left circle and he drove to the net and went five-hole on Sergei Bobrovsky for his 10th goal of the season.
The Panthers finally got on the board 11:37 into the second period when Niko Mikkola snapped a outlet feed to Anton Lundell that just got by Eeli Tolvanen’s blade. Lundell carried into the Seattle end before backhanding a pass in front to Eetu Luostarinen, who shoveled it home to tie the tilt.
It appeared the Cats took the lead with 3:05 left in the frame, but Mackie Samoskevich’s goal was wiped off the board when it was ruled that Evan Rodrigues interferred with Joey Daccord. While Rodrigues did enter the crease and make a little bit of contact with Daccord’s stick, it looked like that contact happened before the shot came in and didn’t effect his ability to mae the save. Unfortunate…
Seattle’s leading goal-scorer, Jared McCann got the eventual game-winner 7:03 into the third when he took a pass from Adam Larsson and ripped a wrister from the left circle that clanked in off Bobrovsky’s stick. Wright drew his second helper of the night on the goal which came on a counter-attack after Daccord was in the right position to deny A.J. Greer at the other end.
The Kraken limited the Panthers to just five shots on goal in the final stanza. The best of those were the aforementioned chance by Greer and Sam Bennett’s wrister from the left circle with 7:30 remaining in regulation.
Florida didn’t give Seattle a lot to work with, holding them to 22 shots, but their inability to generate quality chances, coupled with the Kraken’s 14 blocks, came back to bite them in the end. The Cats saw their lead in the Atlantic Division drop to a single point after the Toronto Maple Leafs doubled up the Carolina Hurricances 6-3 at Scotiabank Arena. Los Gatos will take a quick trip to Nashville for Tuesday night’s meeting with the Predators before returning to Sunrise for a key five-game homestand.
The Grunge
- Former Panthers forward Jared McCann earned the nod for First Star, thanks to his 15th of the campaign. McCann had five shots on goal during the tight tilt.
- Lamp-lighter Eetu Luostarinen and Jonah Gadjovich, who was playing due to Matthew Tkachuk’s lower-body injury, were the only Panthers to register three shots on goal.
- Joey Daccord made 26 saves to became the second goalie in Seattle franchise history to reach the 20-win plateau. Daccord is gunning for Martin Jones’ club record of 27 wins.
- Aleksander Barkov won 12 of his 20 faceoffs, but was held to a single shot. The captain, who played 21-minutes, was also credited with a block.
- The season series between Florida and Seattle saw them combine for just five actual goals. Florida won the first meeting 2-1 in a shootout.