David Banks-Imagn Images
Oct 25, 2026 10:06 PM
Lars Eller’s late goal and a perfect penalty kill powered Florida past the Blackhawks, snapping a two-game skid behind Akira Schmid’s clutch performance in net.
The Florida Panthers got off the schneid on Sunday afternoon in Chicago.
Fresh off a pair of frustrating, multi-goal defeats, the Panthers earned themselves a gritty 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
It wasn’t a great start for Florida, as the Cats were bogged down in their own zone during the early minutes of the game.
Chicago was able to capitalize when Ryan Greene finished off a quick play that saw a point shot by Kevin Korchinski go wide, but Andrew Mangiapane was below the goal line and quickly popped the puck to a wide-open Greene in the slot.
Just like that, it was 1-0 Blackhawks at the 2:34 mark.
That was apparently the wakeup call that Florida needed.
After a few strong shifts by the Panthers to change the momentum, Sandis Vilmanis pounced on a Sam Reinhart rebound to knot the score at one about four minutes later.
Florida then pulled off a couple strong penalty kills, including an extended 5-on-3, before Seth Jones fired a shot from distance that hit off Matthew Tkachuk’s body and went into the net, giving the Panthers their first lead of the day.
A tally by Roman Kantserov, the only goal scored in the second period, would send the game into the final frame knotted up at two.
That’s how the score would remain until the game’s final minutes.
Catching Chicago in a bad line change, Aaron Ekbald found Lars Eller all alone at the Blackhawks’ blue line with nobody in a red sweater anywhere close to him.
Eller walked in all alone on Spencer Knight and fired a shot from the right circle that sailed past Knight’s blocker and into the far side of the net with just 2:23 remaining.
A few big saves by Akira Schmid later and Florida was back on the winning side of things.
Schmid came up huge throughout the game, but he came up with several crucial stops during the third period, including a couple breakaways and a big blocker stop on Patrick Kane in the final seconds.
He finished the game with 20 saves, including stops on eight of the nine high danger shots he faced, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Also coming up big for Florida was their penalty kill.
Despite the Cats taking way too many penalties, allowing a pair of extended 5-on-3s, Florida went a perfect 7-for-7 while on the penalty kill.
The Panthers will now travel to the final stop on their four-game road trip, playing the first of a home and home series with the Winnipeg Jets.
We’ll see you Tuesday from the ‘Peg.
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