A late penalty on Niko Mikkola loomed large in the Florida Panthers costly 5-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center.
Mikkola’s drive by of goaltender Joel Hofer with 1:54 left in the game put the Blues on a power play that they cashed in on with nine seconds remaining on the clock when Jimmy Snuggerud whipped Pavel Buchnevich’s circle-to-circle crossing pass past Daniil Tarasov. The second assist went to Jordan Kyrou, who was named First Star for his one-goal, two-assist performance.
The Panthers took an early lead when Luke Kunin received a short pass from blossoming rookie Sandis Vilmanis and centered out in front to A.J. Greer, who swatted his own rebound past Hofer 3:12 into the opening frame.
St. Louis swould score twice within 3:05 span to forge ahead.
The first goal was a breakaway marker by Jake Neighbours, who was sprung by Buchnevich and decided to forego making any moves and simply beat Tarasov with a wrister from the high slot, with the second assist going to Kyrou, at the 4:46 mark.
Kyrou would get a goal of his own at 7:51 after Philip Broberg picked off a Carter Verhaeghe’s ill-fated stretch pass. Broberg motored into the offensive and found the open forward with a sweet dish. Kyrou then solved Tarasov with a wrister from the left circle.
Florida would click with the man advantage to tie things up at 9:22. After taking a pass from Sam Bennett, Uvis Balinskis let go off a shot that deflected off Matthew Tkachuk in front and Sam Reinhart deposited the loose change into the St. Louis cage for his team-leading 27th goal.
The Blues would regain the lead at 14:27 when Justin Faulk fought off Aaron Ekblad and his one-handed pass got by Balinskis and wound up on the blade of Jonatan Berggren, who smacked the puck by Tarasov from the right circle. Some real shoddy defending here. Yikes…
Oskar Sundqvist scored, with the lone assist going to Faulk, 41 ticks into the second to put the home team up by two.
Tkachuk would bring the Cats back by potting his first goals of the season 1:47 apart late in the period.
He got his first marker at 16:52 when he took a cross from Eetu Luostarinen and deked Hofer to the ice before throwing a backhander into the top of the yawning net. The second helper went to Bennett, who carried over the line before dishing off to Luostarinen.
After some hard work along the boards by Brad Marchand and Gustav Forsling, Reinhart sent the puck down to Tkachuk, who moved in on Hofer and solved him blocker-side from in close at 18:39.
Like Tuesday night’s tilt against Utah, the Panthers failed to come up with a goal in a third period tie and ended up taking a tough loss. They now find themselves eight points out of a playoff spot.
The Five Hole
- After being held off the score sheet for two games, Matthew Tkachuk was the best Panther on the ice, finshing with two goals and an assist, and matching Jimmy Snuggerud with a game-high five shots. Tkachuk has put up six points in six games since returning.
- Sam Reinhart took sole possession of the team scoring lead with his 51st and 52nd points of the campaign. Reinhart also led the Cats in hits with four.
- Daniil Tarasov surrendered five goals on 26 shots and saw his personal four-game winning streak come to an end. Tarasov went 0-2 against the Blues this season, giving up a total of ten goals.
- With the second helper on A.J. Greer’s marker, Sandis Vilmanis, who scored his first NHL goal on Tuesday, has points in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.
- In addition to his assist, Sam Bennett won 64.7% of his draws during the contest. He failed to register a shot on goal and was credited with one hit.