The Florida Panthers fought back in the second period before giving up the last four goals of the game in a 6-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues that brought its season-high four-game winning streak to an end.
St. Louis opened the scoring midway through the opening frame when rookie Otto Stenberg sent the puck back to Cam Fowler following an offensive zone faceoff. The veteran defenseman moved to the middle and let a shot go that Jake Neighbours tipped by a helpless Daniil Tarasov. It was Stenberg’s first point in the NHL.
Recent waiver claim Jonatan Berggren put the Blues up by two with a power-play marker 1:55 into the second. Neighbours played the puck from right to left behind the net to Robert Thomas, who passed to Pavel Buchnevich in the left circle. Buchnevich crossed to Breggren in the right circle and his subsequent wrister was gloved by Tarasov, but he caught it behind the goal line.
The Panthers would finally break through at 7:35. Working down low, Seth Jones tried to stuff the puck past Joel Hofer and the rebound came to Jesper Boqvist, whose follow-up shot was deflected in by A.J. Greer.
Sam Bennett would find Brad Marchand down low and his pass into the slot was wristed home by Sam Reinhart to tie the tilt at 12:45 with Colton Parayko off for holding.
With time running out in the frame, Justin Faulk slapped Berggren’s crafty cross-ice bounce pass off the boards into the top of the net, beating the buzzer to give St. Louis the lead back for good.
The Cats looked gassed in the third period and after failing to take advantage of an early tripping minor on Tyler Tucker, the Blues would eventually run away with it.
Brayden Schenn stole the puck from Jones behind the net and then centered out in front. Although Stenberg couldn’t control the pass and it went off his skates right to a ready Neighbours who notched his second of the night at 12:02.
Thomas would add a power-play goal 51 seconds later, from Buchnevich and Berggren, wristing a shot off the far post and in, and then complete the scoring shorthanded into an empty net at with Tarasov off for an extra attacker at 16:28.
After posting their first two wins of the season when trailing after the first period in the first two games of the homestand, the Cats didn’t have enough in the tank to pull it off a third time after Friday’s emotional win over Carolina. They had some quality looks to take the lead after fighting back to even the score, but couldn’t solve Hofer, who finished with 27 saves, a third time to forge ahead. It was all Blues in the third. They out-shot the Panthers 16-8 on their way to a well-deserved win. The Cats will get a couple off days off before heading up to Raleigh for another meeting with the Hurricanes.
The Five Hole
- A.J. Greer’s seventh goal established a new single-season high for the 29-year-old forward. He scored six in each of the last two campaigns. He is four points away from besting his career-high of 17 with plenty of games left.
- Sam Reinhart’s power-play marker gave him four goals over the last four games. It was his 19th goal and 35th point of the season.
- With the primary helper on Reinhart’s goal, Brad Marchand became the first Panther to hit 20 assists and 40 points this season.
- Daniil Tarasov was having a pretty solid start until Jake Neighbours and Robert Thomas scored 51 seconds apart. Tarasov finished the game with 25 saves.
- In addition to his assist, Sam Bennett won a team-high 12 faceoffs and led the team’s forwards with four shots.
Stat Card
