The Florida Panthers avoided its first three-game losing streak of the season with a rousing 4-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights at Amerant Bank Arena.
Third string goalie Jiri Patera was the star of the opening period, as made 20 saves to keep the surging Panthers off the board.
Patera’s fine work allowed the Golden Knights to open the scoring 1:21 into the second when Ivan Barbashev slipped a backhand centering feed through Aaron Ekblad into the slot for an open Mark Stone to finish off.
The Panthers would counter at the 8:58 mark. After taking a pass from Brandon Montour in the neutral zone, Carter Verhaeghe sent Sam Bennett into the Vegas zone with speed. Bennett worked his way to the right circle, where he backed off Brayden McNabb and fired a shot that rose over the dropping keeper’s glove.
Florida took the lead at 15:16 when Aleksander Barkov won an offensive zone faceoff back to Gustav Forsling and he smacked a shot that found its way between bodies on its way to back of the net.
Pavel Dorofeyev would eqaulize with 23 seconds left in the frame by knocking in the puck affter Ben Hutton’s pass to him was mostly broken up by Dmitry Kulikov, mostly. The second assist on the goal went to Keegan Kolesar.
The Cats would forge back ahead 6:10 into the third with Hutton off for interference. After having his pass attempt blocked, Mattew Tkachuk regained and went low-to-high to Montour, who moved the puck over to Verhaeghe, who whipped a wrister past Patera’s glove.
Sam Reinhart would add some insurance with a second power-play goal 1:59 after Verhaeghe’s. After receiving the puck from Tkachuk in the right corner, Barkov found Reinhart in the right circle and he turned and shot to beat Patera for his team-leading 19th goal of the season.
Kudos to the Panthers for not getting frustarted after they dominated the first period and fell behind early in the second. They persevered and went on to score twice in each of the final two frames to double up Vegas in the first meeting between the two teams since the Stanley Cup Final. The Cats regained possesion of the third place in the Atlantic Division and head into the Christmas break as one of twelve teams in the league to have hit the 40-point plateau.
Swords & Tequila
- Carter Verhaeghe’s game-winner was his 100th goal with the Panthers. Verhaeghe earned First Star honors for his performance which also included an assist, three shots and a hit.
- Aleksander Barkov had a strong game, finishing with two helpers, four shots, four hits and a block. Barkov won 10 of 13 draws, with one resulting directly in a goal.
- Mark Stone’s game-opening marker extended his point streak to four games. Stone has put up points in seven straight road games.
- Jack Eichel saw his franchise record 12-game point streak come to an end. The Cats held Vegas’ leading scorer to a mere one shot on goal.
- Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves and collected his 15th win of the season. Bobrovsky lowered his GAA to 2.50 and upped his save percentage to .910.
- Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Alex Pietrangelo and William Karlsson partook in some late-game roughhousing and received misconducts.
- For more on the last game before Christmas, stop by Knights On Ice.