The Florida Panthers are officially back in action, and they showed it in the Cardiac Cats form, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime in a playoff-like game. With the win, the Panthers improved to 33-10-5, and are back to first in the Eastern Conference.
A Feisty First Period:
Florida opened up the game with multiple chances, but all were stopped by Frederik Andersen. The period looked like it would end in a 0-0 knit, but the Hurricanes would take a 1-0 lead when Teuvo Teravainen would tip one in past Sergei Bobrovsky.
There were multiple fights and scrums, with two targeted or delivered from Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov.
Second Period, The Cats and their Jaw-Dropping Tricks:
The second period was defined by two jaw-dropping plays, both by the Panthers.
First up, the Cats had a Vezina winner, then they had Sergei Bobrovsky. The Vezina winner, Lucas Carlsson, slid in from the left side behind Bobrovsky to deflect Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s seemingly easy rebound put-away with the shaft of his stick and keep the game at 1-0.
A few minutes later, the Captain would strike. Aleksander Barkov would skate in for a 1-on-1 matchup with Brady Skjei, then flipped the puck behind his back to his right side to his backhand side to beat Andersen at 13:09 to tie the game at one. Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour called it a “world-class goal”.
There would also be another scrum in the second; this time it would involve Florida’s Mason Marchment laying out former Panthers player Vincent Trocheck with a jarring hit that sent Trocheck’s helmet flying. Trocheck kept playing, only to be sent to the box for playing without his helmet.
Third Period, It’s Not About How You Start, It’s About How You Finish:
Carolina would come right out of the gate in the third and take a 2-1 lead when Tony DeAngelo buried one from the point.
The Hurricanes maintained the lead throughout the entire period and looked like they were going to win. However, the Panthers outshot the Hurricanes 22-8 in the final two periods, and it would pay off again.
The Panthers pulled Sergei Bobrovsky for the extra skater, resulting in a Sam Reinhart game-tying goal with under one minute left.
Overtime:
Aaron Ekblad would score the game-winning goal 16 seconds into overtime when he was able to go all alone on a breakaway and sneak it past Andersen.
Next Up:
The Panthers will continue their road trip as they travel to Minnesota to take on the Wild.