Sam Bennett lit the lamp with 42 seconds left in overtime to give the Florida Panthers a mammoth 2-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club at Amerant Bank Arena.
Brad Marchand, finally making his Florida debut, set up the winning goal from behind the net following a rush after taking a pass from Gustav Forsling. Marchand got the puck to Bennett in the lower left circle and he backhanded it by Karel Vejmelka to put the Panthers back on top of the Atlantic Division.
Bennett opened the scoring with a power-play goal 2:28 into the second period. After trading passes with Mackie Samoskevich, Aleksander Barkov sent a cross-ice feed to Bennett, who jammed the puck home from just outside the right post. Ian Cole was the guilty yeti in the sin bin, serving a penalty for holding Bennett’s stick.
Utah’s lone goal came 1:55 to the third when Sean Durzi fired a shot by Sergei Bobrovksy from the right circle to finish off a 2-on-1 break with Barrett Hayton. That odd-man rush came after Forsling activated from the point, but had his shot blocked in the slot.
Other than that, the Panthers did a pretty good job of clamping down on the hockey club from Salt Lake City, limiting them to 14 shots on goal.
After getting pulled Thursday night at Amalie Arena, Vejmelka earned his team a point with a strong 30-save effort.
The positive result put the Panthers one point ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Third place Tampa Bay trails the Cats by two points. Each of the clubs in the chase for the Atlantic Division crown has ten games left on their respective schedules.
Latter Day Snipes
- Sam Bennett earned First Star honors for providing all of Florida’s offense. Bennett had a game-high six shots on goal and two blocks. He matched his career-high of 49 points set in the 2021-22 season, his first with Florida.
- In addition to setting up the game-winner, Brad Marchand was credited with four shots, two blocks and two hits while logging 16:30 of ice time is his first game as a Panther.
- He didn’t have a lot to do, but Sergei Bobrovsky was sharp when called upon, finishing with 13 saves to post his 31st win of the season. Bobrvosky is tied with Washington’s Logan Thompson for the fourth-most wins in the NHL.
- Barrett Hayton (3), Logan Cooley (2) and defenseman Mikhail Sergechev (2) were only Utah skaters to register more than one shot on goal.
- The Panthers went a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill while UHC allowed Florida one power-play goal on six chances.
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