The Florida Panthers roared back to life in the finale of a three-game homestand, putting a convincing 5-1 beatdown on the Toronto Maple Leafs to end a four-game losing streak.
Aleksander Barkov got the Cats off on the good foot when he pounded in a pass from Aaron Ekblad from the right circle after Carter Verhaeghe fed the defenseman at the point. All five Panthers touched the puck on the goal, which came at 4:46 and with Nikita Grebenkin off for boarding.
After taking a pass from Eetu Luostarinen, Mackie Samoskevich followed-up after trying to force the puck back to his linemate and beat former Panther Anthony Stolarz high glove-side to make it 2-0 fifty seconds later.
That would be it for goals for a while until a holding call on Evan Rodrigues late in the second period sparked a couple more.
Sam Reinhart bumped the lead to three when he joined Barkov and Ekblad’s shorthanded rush and took a drop pass from the captain and solved Stolarz with a perfectly-placed wrister from between the circles at 17:04.
Mitch Marner would display his skills by scoring a pretty goal from in close with 19 seconds left in Rodrigues’ penalty. after the puck came towards Sergei Bobrovksy following a faceoff. The goal extended Marner’s point streak to five games.
The Panthers would take advantage of a double-minor for high-sticking on William Nylander to put the game away with 5:23 remaining ont the clock. After taking a pass from Sam Bennett, Rodrigues dumped the puck around the boards from right to left. Bennett smartly let the puck go past him to Verhaeghe, who took possession and skated into the left circle before rifling a shot over Stolarz’ short-side shoulder to restore Florida’s three-goal lead.
Verhaeghe would combine with Matthew Tkachuk to set Bennett up for an empty-netter at 18:32 to complete the scoring, sending the sellout crowd at Amerant Bank Arena home happy.
Playing its best game since trouncing the Winnipeg Jets in Sunrise 11 days prior, the Panthers were the superior team in all three zones throughout and used a couple power-play goals and Reinhart’s fourth shorthanded marker of the season to end depleted Toronto’s four-game winning streak. Bobrovsky delivered a quality start behind his teammates, finishing with 23 saves to post his tenth win of the campaign. The Cats will break for Thanksgiving before playing the first segment of a difficult back-to-back against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday afternoon.
Rakes & Bags
- Aleksander Barkov earned First Star honors for his fifth multi-point performance of 2024-25. Despite missing eight games, Barkov is tied for second on the team in scoring with Sam Bennett with 21 points.
- Former Panthers Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Steven Lorentz and Anthony Stolarz received their Stanley Cup rings before the game. Stolarz stopped 19 of 23 shots; OEL went minus-two and registered three shots, a block and two hits; and Lorentz was credited with one hit.
- Sam Reinhart leads the NHL with 17 goals (one more than Leon Draisaitl) and four shorthanded goals. He is tied for sixth in scoring with 32 points.
- Carter Verhaeghe put up his second three-point game of the season. Good to see Verhaeghe, who has two goals and three assists in his last three games, heating up.
- Rookie Mackie Samoskevich is up to four goals and his latest was his third game-winner. Samoskevich has collected six points in nine November games.
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