On Tuesday night, the Florida Panthers defeated the New York Islanders 6-1. The Panthers have won their first game of a four-game homestead after going 0-4 on a road trip. For the Islanders, they now sit on a four-game losing streak for a lackluster 5-6-2 record.
Game Recap
To open the game, Carter Verhaeghe took a penalty that Florida was able to kill. Shortly after the penalty kill, Huberdeau opened the scoring at 6:58 into the first for a 1-0 Panthers lead. Later in the period, Lomberg tallied his first of the season to extend the lead to two. 1:34 later, Verhaeghe scored a wrap-around goal to increase the lead to three. With 1:47 remaining in the first, Hornqvist scored the fourth of the game for Florida. On top of the 4-0 lead, the Panthers led in shots 17-12.
1:47 into the second period, Scott Mayfield laid a knee-to-knee hit on Aleksander Barkov. This ended Barkov’s night to injury, and Mayfield’s night due to a game misconduct. Nearly 1:30 later, Bennett took a penalty taking two minutes off a five-minute power play for Florida. The Panthers could not capitalize and the game continued 4-0. A few minutes over the halfway mark of the middle frame, Ekblad scored another for Florida. Kyle Palmieri quickly responded, preventing a shutout, narrowing the score to 5-1 Panthers.
One minute into the third, Gudas and Palmieri went toe to toe in a fight. This was due to Radko Gudas stepping up for a big hit on Brock Nelson who had his head down. Later, Frank Vatrano recorded number six for Florida to wrap up the game at 6-1.
Sergei Bobrovsky had a big night with 27 saves on 28 shots for a .964 save percentage.
Takeaways/Notes
- Sergei Bobrovsky now has a record of 7-0-2 on the season. He is the second goalie in franchise history with team points in each of their first nine games.
- The New York Islanders just wrapped up a thirteen game road trip to begin the season. This is due to the construction of their new home, the UBS Arena, finally wrapping up.
- The Florida Panthers now have 900 wins in franchise history.
Up Next
Florida will take the ice Thursday night at home versus the 7-4-3 New Jersey Devils. Puck drop between the Devils and Panthers is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST.