Florida's winning streak comes to an end at ten games, one of the three longest in franchise history

As has been the case a few times this season, the Florida Panthers ran into a hot goaltender on Saturday night and despite controlling play for most of the night, came up short in the end.

Devils goaltender Nico Daws stopped 36 of Florida’s 37 shots, including an impressive 12 of 13 high danger shots.

Florida nearly cashed in with a goal opening seconds. Entering the Devils zone on the game’s first shift, Matthew Tkachuk found a cutting Sam Bennett in the slot and his deflection beat Daws but clanged off the right post and fluttered into the corner.

As it would turn out, for the third game in a row the Panthers would dig themselves into an early hole that would require climbing out of.

A shot from inside the right circle by Alexander Holtz deflected off the stick blade of Dmitry Kulikov and fluttered over Sergei Bobrovsky’s shoulder at the 3:50 mark to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead.

The Devils would double their lead about 10 minutes later when Michael McLeod’s shot hit Jesper Bratt’s skate and slid between Bobrovsky’s legs.

It was the first time Florida trailed by two or more goals since Dec. 21 against St. Louis, which just happened to be the Panthers most recent loss.

Florida’s hole would get deeper less than four minutes into the second, thanks to ex-Panther Erik Haula.

A quick shot from the right faceoff dot stayed right along the ice and snuck under Bobrovsky to make it 3-0 Devils.

The Panthers would be granted the game’s first power play when Colin Miller was called for slashing the stick out of Sam Bennett’s hands with under three minutes to go in the period.

It took a little while to for the top unit to get things fired up, but what became an extended shift and assault on Daws ended with Florida’s first goal of the game.

Matthew Tkachuk took a feed from Brandon Montour and backhanded a pass between his legs to Sam Reinhart, who had just picked himself up off the ice in time to one-time the puck into a wide-open net.

The third period was much like the second, with Florida controlling almost all of the possession and offensive opportunities, but they just couldn’t get anything past Daws.

Shots on goal during the final 40 minutes were 29-10 in favor of the Panthers. 

No matter, as an empty net goal in the waning moments would ice the game for the Devils.

Florida's win streak is over.

They’ll look to start a new one on Monday afternoon when Anaheim comes to town,.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Saturday’s battle with the Devils:

Reinhart now has goals in six straight games. He’s also scored 14 times over his past 12 games.

Tkachuk’s assist extended his points streak to eight games. He’s got 7 goals and 17 points over that span.

Despite the loss, Florida won the special teams battle. The Cats went 1-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. 

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