The Florida Panthers fell to the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, 3-2. With the loss, Florida fell back down in the Central Division standings (20-8-4, 3rd), while Chicago improved to 15-13-5 (4th).
Game Recap:
Before the game, Coach Q announced that Aleksander Barkov would be out on Tuesday night with a supposed lower-body injury. This would prove costly for the Panthers, as Noel Acciari would take over as the first-line center.
“You lose a key guy, but it’s a good test on the whole group there,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “Certainly, the impact he has on the team was noticeable there. We started to get our way as the game progressed, more so later in the third, but it was a tough, tough start.”
First Period
Early in the first period, Florida struggled. At 6:24, Chicago LW Dominik Kubinik scored on a goal assisted by Brandon Hagel and Connor Murphy. Chicago would then get another goal at 18:30 in the period, scored by Pius Ziter.
Second Period
Things would then get better for Florida, despite Carl Soderberg’s power play goal to open the second period. Anton Stralman would score 8:53 in, his sixth of the season, to put the Cats within two (3-1).
Third Period
With the goalie pulled on a late man advantage to create a 6-on-4 situation, the Panthers pulled within a goal as Alex Wennberg picked up a deflected puck at the side of the goal and tapped it past Kevin Lankinen to make it a 3-2 game. But that would be it for Florida, despite some chances in the final moments of the game.
Acciari, who was great, on filling in for Barkov on Tuesday night: “You can’t replace that guy. He’s very valuable to us. We definitely missed him out there. Whether it’s first, second, third or fourth [lines], I’m going to do whatever I can to help the team.”
Takeaways
- Chicago beat Florida for the first time this season.
- On Tuesday night, the Blackhawks honored Patrick Kane for reaching 1,000 career games. It was a relatively small pregame ceremony, with the team planning to throw another party next season when it hopes to have its usual raucous crowd at the United Center. Quenneville, who coached Kane to three Stanley Cup titles in Chicago, watched the ceremony from Florida’s bench while the rest of his team was in the locker room.
- Radko Gudas had 11 hits on Tuesday night.