Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 25 shots and the Florida Panthers got goals from four different players in a 4-0 victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Panthers took an early lead when Matthew Tkachuk beat Jet Greaves off the rush 47 seconds into the action with the assists going to Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Nick Cousins. Tkachuk’s goal came on the very first shot of the game.
Greaves, who was making just his eighth NHL appearance, would manage to hold the outplayed Blue Jackets in it until late in the second period when the Cats struck for two goals in a 1:41 span.
It wasn’t pretty, but Evan Rodrigues was able to knock in a return pass from Anton Lundell at 17:25 to give the deserving Panthers some breathing room. Eetu Luostarinen drew the secondary assist on Rodrigues’ 12th of the season.
Sam Reinhart would work himself open in the right circle to receive a pass from Aleksander Barkov before beating Greaves high blocker-side with 54 seconds left in the frame. The goal was Reinhart’s 54th; Barkov’s assist was his 54th; and Ekman-Larsson collected his second helper of the night.
Vladimir Tarasenko would tack on another with 2:07 left in the tilt when he knocked down Gustav Forsling shot from the left point and backhanded it home while getting knocked down by defenseman David Jiricek. Gritty piece of work by Tarasenko, who notched his 23rd goal overall and sixth as a Panther.
A dominant performance by the Panthers, who are now 3-0-1 in their last four games, with all three wins being of the shutout variety. The win, coupled with Toronto’s wild 6-5 loss in regulation to New Jersey reduced Florida’s magic number for home ice in the first round of the playoffs down to a single point. The Cats will take on the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday evening before closing out the regular season against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
Cuffs & Buttons
- Florida hit 50 wins in a season for just the second time in franchise history. The Panthers won 58 games on their way to the Presidents’ Trophy in 2021-22.
- With two shutouts in his last three starts, Sergei Bobrovsky matched Connor Ingram and Tristan Jarry for the league lead (six). Bobrovsky is one away from equaling the franchise record of seven, jointly held by Roberto Luongo and Tomas Vokoun.
- After a rough performance against Boston, Oliver Ekman-Larsson got the next game off. He delivered a strong performance in his return, collecting two assists and finishing with a plus-three rating.
- Jet Greaves stopped 42 of 46 shots as the Panthers kept the 23-year-old busy from start to finish.
- Sam Bennett finished a game-high six shots on goal while Cole Sillinger led the Blue Jackets with five.
- The Panthers swept the season-series against Columbus. Read more about it at The Cannon.