Carolina’s prospects challenged Florida’s star-studded veteran lineup but ultimately came up short.
The Carolina Hurricanes were very much outmatched in their preseason opener, but the young prospects still made things interesting against a stacked Florida Panthers side, ultimately falling 6-3 Sunday night.
For comparisons sake, the Panthers were playing a roster that in all likelihood will be their opening night roster, while the Canes' lineup had zero players who took part in the team's Stanley Cup championship just a few months ago.
Regardless, the Canes had their moments, taking an early lead and orchestrating a small comeback in the second.
Dominik Badinka got the scoring started for Carolina just six minutes into the game as Florida goaltender Jacob Markstrom attempted a self clear off of a Canes dump-in, only to have the puck knocked away by Badinka and shot in off of his own back.
Things stayed fairly even through the opening frame, but the Panthers would find the equalizer on their first man-advantage with new acquisition Brady Tkachuk rifling one past Pyotr Kochetkov from the high slot.
And that's about where the game started to slide as Florida started to really get their legs under them.
Quickly into the start of the second, Aleksander Barkov got loose for a breakaway, scoring through Kochetkov's five-hole and then moments later, a neutral-zone turnover by the Hurricanes led to a transition chance for the Panthers and Cole Reinhardt went bar down from the slot.
However, the young Canes never looked shellshocked and were able to muster a response of their own.
On a 5-on-3 power play, the Hurricanes won the opening draw and executed some quick puck movement to find Justin Robidas in the slot. Then just over a minute later, Robidas burst into the offensive zone with speed and took two Panthers around the net before depositing a pass onto the stick of Bradly Nadeau who was crashing the net.
Just like that, the Canes had found themselves right back in the game.
But that was about as long as the good vibes would go as not even 1:30 later, Reinhardt would get his second, tipping in a shot from the slot, followed by Niko Mikkola sending a seeing-eye shot in through traffic.
Brady Tkachuk would cap off the game with an empty netter, but not before dropping the gloves with Charles Alexis Legault as he took exception with a hit on Barkov laid by Mike Reilly.
The Hurricanes will be back in action on Tuesday to take on the Panthers again, but this time for their first home preseason game.
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