After getting beat 2-1 by the Vancouver Canucks at sold-out Rogers Arena, the Florida Panthers remain stuck on one point after finishing three games of its current four-game journey west.
The Panthers opened the scoring when Jaromir Jagr notched a power-play goal 3:45 into second period. Jagr beat Ryan Miller from in tight after taking a feed from behind the net from the much-improved Jared McCann. Jonathan Marchessault picked up the secondary assist on Jagr’s ninth of the season.
The Canucks evened the score 2:05 later when Henrik Sedin finished off a 2-on-1 rush with twin brother Daniel by sliding a backhander under Roberto Luongo. The goal gave Henrik 1,000 career points. Alexander Edler drew the second assist for crisply getting the puck up to Daniel. In a classy move, Luongo took a second to congratulate his former teammate after the goal.
Luca Sbisa fired home the game-winning goal 3:07 into the final frame. After Luongo made a glove save on Daniel Sedin, the Panthers failed to gain control of the rebound and Sbisa collected the loose puck and sniped the top corner. It was just the second goal of the campaign for the Vancouver defensman.
Miller finished with 34 saves to out-duel his fellow veteran counterpart, who turned aside 30 shots in another strong, but wasted effort. Luongo made a few dazzling stops including this absolute beauty on Loui Eriksson in the first period.
The Cats finish off the road trip Monday night in Glendale. Tom Rowe needs to find a way to squeeze more goals out of his injury-depleted lineup to get a win against the lowly Coyotes and avoid coming home with just a single point.
Touque & Ehs
- Henrik Sedin reached the 1,000-point mark in his 1.213th NHL game. Brother Daniel is also closing in on the milestone, his assist gave him 968 points.
- The Panthers only goal came with Alex Burrows in the box for holding. The marker moved Florida’s power play up to 24th in the league at 15.3%.
- In addition to his helper on said goal, Jared McCann registered three shots on Ryan Miller, dished out three hits and posted an even rating in his first game against his former team.
- The Canucks were able to limit Vincent Trocheck to a single shot on goal and bring his six-game point-streak to an end.
- The trio of Trocheck, Reilly Smith and Jussi Jokinen all finished the game with -2 ratings. Jokinen couldn’t catch up with Sedin to prevent the Canucks first goal.
- Vancouver boasts two former Panthers on their roster. Jack Skille finished the tilt with two shots on goal, while Erik Gudbranson is out long-term with a wrist injury and missed the game.
- Nucks Misconduct has the other side of Vancouver’s season series-splitting win over the Cats./