The Florida Panthers had a huge win on Monday night, defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3. With the Panthers’ win, they move to 19-5-4, which is good enough for first in the Central Division, and tied for the best record in the NHL. Florida also improves to 4-0 against Chicago this season.
Game Recap:
Monday night’s game started very evenly matched for both teams. Chicago’s Patrick Kane got the ice-breaker at 10:38, with the assist from David Kampf. Florida got an answer back before the end of the period, with a goal scored by the red-hot Owen Tippett, who has scored a goal in three of the last four games.
The 2nd period was a very high-scoring affair. Chicago answered Florida in the middle of the period with a Philipp Kurashev goal at 10:19. Chicago then pushed their lead to 3-1, three minutes later, on a goal scored by Brandon Hagel. This, however, did not stop the “Comeback Cats”. Just under two minutes later, the Panthers got a goal from Aaron Ekblad, with a Keith Yandle and Jonathan Huberdeau assist. A minute later, Gustav Forsling got his first ever NHL goal, assisted by Carter Verhaeghe and Aleksander Barkov. It was 3-3 heading into the 3rd.
In the 3rd period, the turning point of the game happened when the Blackhawks got a power play. Florida took advantage of their penalty kill and Aleksander Barkov scored a short-handed goal, which would eventually be the game winning goal 13:26 into the period. The goal was assisted by Noel Acciari and MacKenzie Weegar. Florida would then put the game out of reach when Carter Verhaeghe and Alexander Wennberg scored empty-netters.
Takeaways
- Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers made 26 saves to improve to 6-0-0 in his last six games dating to March 4 (2.82 GAA, .914 SV%).
- The Florida Panthers, who scored five unanswered goals to erase a 3-1 deficit on Monday, improved to 19-5-4 (42 points) this season and moved ahead of the idle Islanders (19-6-4, 42 points) for first place in the NHL standings.
- Aaron Ekblad scored his 10th goal of the season on Monday night. With that goal, Ekblad becomes the fastest Florida Panthers defenseman in franchise history to reach 10 goals in a season (28 GP).
Ekblad on Barkov: “Pretty much every shift, guys are left with their jaw on the floor… His puck protection, his vision, everything. He’s the hardest working guy, and we know that. He’s a role model for all of us, day in and day out.”
Next Up
The Florida Panthers will face the Nashville Predators on Thursday, March 18, at 7:00 PM EST.