The Panthers returned home after their five-game road trip but couldn't keep up with the visiting Penguins.
The Florida Panthers were back on home ice Tuesday following a frustrating five-game road trip.
With the Pittsburgh Penguins in town, Florida couldn’t keep up with Sidney Crosby and Co., falling to the Pens 5-3.
The first penalty of the game, a tripping call on Jeff Petry, led to the first goal of the game.
With Sergei Bobrovsky scrambling after making a save on Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust collected the puck behind the net and fed a wide-open Crosby in the slot.
Crosby’s shot sailed into a wide-open net, giving Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at the 6:24 mark.
Almost exactly one period later, the Penguins doubled their lead off what looked like a broken play in Florida’s zone.
A point shot by Erik Karlsson after the puck found its way to the blue line was deflected and bounced its way to Rickard Rakell, who was able to tap the puck behind Bobrovsky with 6:36 gone in the middle frame.
Shortly after, Florida went on their second power play of the game after Connor Clifton hooked Jesper Boqvist in the Pens’ end of the ice.
With the puck at the point, Seth Jones fed it to Mackie Samoskevich at the half boards, and he fired a pass across the zone to the back post, where Brad Marchand was waiting.
Marchand’s fourth goal and team-leading ninth point of the season made the score 2-1 with 11:44 to go in the second.
Pittsburgh regained their two-goal advantage when Ben Kindel one-timed a feed from Tommy Novak over Bobrovsky’s blocker at the 15:24 mark.
Florida closed the gap once again, and just like the last time, they did it with a power play goal.
Sam Reinhart found himself all alone with the puck just to the right of Jarry’s net and wired a wrist shot past his blocker 2:24 into the third period.
About two and a half minutes later, Connor Dewar cut to the middle of Florida’s zone and sent a shot through Bobrovsky’s five hole that Bob would probably want back, restoring Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead for a third time.
Never a team to give up the fight, Florida kept clawing back at Pittsburgh.
A great feed out of the corner from Eetu Luostarinen led Marchand right to Jarry, and a great move to the backhand cut the score to 4-3 with 8:54 on the clock.
Less than 30 seconds later, Aaron Ekblad took a holding penalty deep in Florida’s zone, and 13 seconds after that, Crosby scored again to make it 5-3 Pens.
On to the Golden Knights.
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Photo caption: Oct 23, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Eetu Luostarinen (27) shoots the puck against Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry (35) as defenseman Connor Clifton (75) and defenseman Caleb Jones (82) defend during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)