The Florida Panthers beat the Chicago Blackhawks by a score of 5-2 on Sunday night. A huge scoring push rocketed the Panthers to a win with some help from their depth and grit that Coach Joe Quenneville has been preaching all offseason.
Florida Panthers Pregame
Before the game, the Panthers revealed two important scratches in newly acquired Markus Nutivaara, and Vinnie Hinostroza. Also, Anthony Duclair, Patric Hornqvist, Carter Verhaeghe, Alexander Wennberg, Eetu Luostarinen, and Gustav Forsling make their Panther debuts. As well as the information about Hinostroza and Nutivaara, Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky would not start the season for the Panthers. Instead, the job would go to Chris Dreidger, with Sam Montembeault as the backup.
1st Period
The Florida Panthers would go into a feeling out process as there weren’t many chances in the 1st. But, a little over halfway through the period, Patrick Kane would put the Blackhawks ahead 1-0. The coaching staff of the Panthers would notice the play was offsides, and challenge the call. After considering, the refs did overturn the call and the goal would not count. Soon after, the Panthers would get some chances of their own, but the period would end tied up at zero.
2nd Period
At the start of the 2nd, the Panthers would come out on fire. Newly added Carter Verhaeghe, would score 13 seconds in, to put the Panthers up 1-0. Verhaeghe is a 3 time Stanley Cup Champion, coming from the Tampa Bay Lightning. A little over 5 minutes later, Keith Yandle would score his 100th career goal. The Panthers would dominate the early part of the second period, but falter. They gave one up on the power play on a one-timer by Alex Debrincat. They would head into the 3rd only up by one, 2-1.
3rd Period
Three minutes into the 3rd, Connor Murphy would score to tie the game. Less than a minute later, Eetu Luostarinen would score his 1st career goal to put the Panthers back on top. Two minutes later, Patric Hornqvist would make it 4-2. About 15 minutes go by until Jonathan Huberdeau puts the icing on the cake with the goal that made it 5-2.
The Panthers win their first game, while the Blackhawks fall to 0-3, still searching for their first win of the season. The Blackhawks look for revenge on Tuesday, January 19, when the two teams face each other again.