Panthers Suffer First Regulation Loss Of Season, Fall 4-1 To Minnesota

The Florida Panthers were welcomed home by a packed Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday night in Sunrise.

Unfortunately for the sellout crowd of 19,856 fans, Florida waited until after their season opening four-game road trip to suffer their first regulation loss, falling to the Minnesota Wild by a final score of 4-1.

Minnesota got off to an early start, scoring on the game’s first shot on goal.

After Matt Boldy collected the puck in the neutral zone and moved toward Florida’s blue line, a defensive lapse by the Seth Jones-Niko Mikkola pairing allowed Boldy a clean entry and room to shoot.

His long wrist shot sailed past Jacob Markstrom, giving the Wild a 1-0 lead just 53 seconds into the opening period.

Superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov made it 2-0 for the visitors about five minutes later, picking up his fourth goal of the season while Minnesota was on the power play.

Florida’s first goal of the game came early in the middle frame, when Matthew Tkachuk picked up his own rebound and deposited the puck behind Jesper Wallstedt at the 2:18 mark.

Unfortunately for the Cats, it didn’t take Minnesota long to restore their two-goal lead, and once again it was Kaprizov, this time finishing off a nice pass by Boldy to make it 3-1 exactly five minutes into the second period.

That’s how the score would remain until Kaprizov completed his hat trick, ally-ooping the puck from just inside Minnesota’s blue line all the way down the ice and into Florida’s vacated net with 64 seconds left on the clock.

On to Buffalo.

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Photo caption: Oct 10, 2026; Sunrise,Florida, USA; Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy (12) celebrates a goal against theFloridaPantherswith teammates center Joel Eriksson Ek (14) and left wing Blake Coleman (20) during the first period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)