Aleksander Barkov sniped Joel Hofer with 17 second left in overtime to lift the Florida Panthers to a hard-fought 2-1 overtime victory over a very game St. Louis Blues squad at Amerant Bank Arena.
After a taking a return pass from Aaron Ekblad, Barkov looked over his options before snapping a quick wrister from the right circle past a surprsied Hofer. Sam Reinhart picked up the secondary assist on the power-play goal which came 26 seconds after the captain drew a tripping call on Brayden Schenn.
With the primary helper on Barkov’s ninth career overtime goal, Ekblad tied Stephen Weiss for the third-most assists (249) in franchise history.
The Panthers controlled play for the majority of the first period, but gave up the opening goal at the 10:01 mark when Alexandre Texier tracked down Zac Bolduc’s dump down low and threw the puck back in front to Oskar Sundqvist, who roofed a backhander.
Florida finally got on the board 10:58 into the second when a pretty Aleksander Barkov pass found Uvis Balinskis in the lower right circle and he zipped a perfectly-placed shot by Joel Hofer. Matthew Tkachuk collected the second assist on Balinskis’ first of the season.
Second Star Sergei Bobrovsky, who finished with 26 stops, made one save than the 24-year-old Hofer to backstop the Cats top their third straight victory.
After posting this gritty win over the Blues, the Panthers will rest today before playing a Sunday-Monday home and home against the Tampa Bay Lightning and then take a much-needed holiday break.
Sharps & Flats
- Aleksander Barkov earned First Star honors for manufacturing both of Florida’s markers. The goal was his first game-winner of the season. Barkov was credited with three shots, two blocks, and won 58.3% of his faceoffs.
- Sergei Bobrovsky picked up 16th win of the campaign, tying him with Jacob Markstrom and Jake Oettinger for second-most in the league behind Connor Hellebucyk.
- In addition to scoring his second NHL goal, Uvis Balinskis finished with a game-high six shots. The only other time Balinskis lit the lamp was on November 10, 2023 against Carolina.
- Joel Hofer was the best Blue in this close contest. Faceoffs were 50.9% to 49.1% in favor of St. Louis, each team registered 27 shots on goal and they also both had just four PIMs each.
- With their assists in the game, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk each extended their respective point streaks to three games.