After getting held to a single goal in Wednesday’s loss to Boston, the Florida Panthers came up completely empty in a 3-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets at Amerant Bank Arena.
Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves to backstop Winnipeg to the season series sweep, ending the Cats three-game Thanksgiving week homestand on a sour note. It was the 33rd career shutout for Hellebuyck and his first of the 2023-24 campaign.
Nino Niederreiter opened the scoring with 2:17 left in the first period, when he knocked in a loose puck after Sergei Bobrovsky made a save on Dylan Samberg’s shot from the left point. The second assist on the play went to Mason Appleton.
Both keepers were sharp in the middle frame to keep it a one-goal game with Bobrovsky stopping 11 shots while Hellebuyck turned away 12, standing strong as the Panthers swarmed the net in the lates stages.
Florida’s inability to finish chances coupled with Nikolai Ehlers’ undressing of defenseman Uvis Balinkskis and pretty finish with 9:45 remaining allowed the Jets to stick the two-point landing.
Cole Perfetti and Vladimir Namestinkov drew the assists on Ehlers’ highlight reel beauty and Appleton and Samberg each collected a second helper on Adam Lowry’s shorthanded empty-netter.
The frustrated Panthers out-shot (33-31) and out-hit (14-8) the Jets, and also dominated on faceoffs, winning 59.3% of the games’s draws, but couldn’t find a way to get a puck past Hellebuyck. As it did on Wednesday against the Bruins, Florida’s power play (0 for 2) came up empty when they really needed a lift from the special teams to potentially swing a tight game. The Cats will get the weekend off before embarking on a three-game roadie against division rivals Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. Hopefully, they can rediscover their offensive mojo north of the border.
Pitch & Yaw
- Florida lost consecutive games for the just the second time this season. Winnipeg was the team that handed them a losing streak in both instances.
- The Panthers were shut out on home ice for the first time since the Dallas Stars blanked them by a 3-0 count on February 24, 2021.
- Nino Niederreiter’s first period marker ended a seven-game goalless drought that followed a hat trick in Arizona on November 4. It was his first game-winning goal of the season.
- Niederreiter, Kyle Connor, Matthew Tkachuk and Gustav Forsling each registered a game-high four shots. Tkachuk remaining stuck on three goals is concerning.
- Aleksander Barkov returned to the lineup after missing two games. He finished the tilt with just one shot on goal and two hits in 19:39 of ice time.
- For more on Florida’s crash landing, visit Arctic Ice Hockey.