Jesper Boqvist punched in the rebound of Hunter St. Martin’s shot 2:40 into overtime to lift the Florida Panthers to a 5-4 comeback win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Niko Mikkola drew the secondary assist on the game-winner, his second helper of the night.
The Panthers trailed 4-1 after Carolina’s Gleb Trikozov, who notched a hat trick against the Panthers two weeks ago at the Rookie Showcase in Nashville, lit the lamp 4:25 into the second period.
Chris Driedger would shut the door after that and the Cats would score thrice in a 10:51 span to tie the tilt.
After setting up Patrick Giles’ second of the preseason in the first period, Ryan McAliister tracked down Giles’ dump-in and whipped a backhand pass in front for Wilmer Skoog to rap home at the 6:53 mark.
A heady play by Evan Nause, who found an open Sandis Vilmanis for a one-timer from the right circle after having his initial shot blocked, cut the deficit to one at 12:49. The second assist went to Kai Schwindt for getting the puck back to Nause.
Adam Boqvist would send a pass from Anton Lundell between Spencer Martin’s pads with Eertu Luostarinen screening to even it up with 2:16 left in frame. Mikkola collected the second helper as the Panthers worked the puck up the ice in efficient fashion.
Driedger would stop eight shots in the third while Martin turned away six to send the game to overtime.
In addition to Trikozov’s goal, the Hurricanes other finishers were Jackson Blake, Juha Jaaska and Jack Drury. Jasska had the primary assist on Blake’s game-opening goal.
Giles, who is making a strong case for the fourth line center job with Tomas Nosek out, tied the score with 6:25 left in the first when he got behind defender Aleksi Heimosalmi to steer McAllister’s pass into the back of the net. Skoog started things off with a nice backhand pass to McAllister to gain the zone.
Driedger ended the night with 27 saves on 31 shots and veteran defenseman Nate Schmidt led the Cats with four shots on goal as Florida’s won its third of the preseason.
The Panthers will resume training camp before facing the Tampa Bay Lightning on home ice Tuesday night.