Ekman-Larsson overtime goal gives Florida 3-2 win over Islanders
The Panthers have won four straight games overall and eight in a row on the road
Make it four straight wins for the Florida Panthers as they enter the All-Star break.
It took more than 60 minutes for the second night in a row, but the Panthers picked up a pair of power play goals before Oliver Ekman-Larsson ended the game with a nice overtime winner.
The story for the Panthers early on in this one however was the play of goaltender Anthony Stolarz.
Getting the start on the second night of a back-to-back, Stolarz picked up where he left off in his last start, Monday’s 4-1 win in Nashville in which he stopped 26 shots, including all 10 high danger shots sent his way.
Stolarz kept Florida from falling behind, particularly during the second period when he made saves on back-to-back shorthanded 2-on-1 breaks by the Islanders.
The Panthers started rounding into form, and on a power play shortly before the midway point of the second period, Matthew Tkachuk did what he does and found an open Sam Reinhart in the slot.
Reinhart made no mistake, beating Semyon Varlamov to put the Cats in front 1-0.
The goal was Reinhart’s 20th power play goal of the season, which set a new Panthers franchise record.
New York ended up tying the game late in the second period on a play that came directly off a faceoff in the Panthers end.
Simon Holmstrom found a bouncing puck and quickly snapped it past Stolarz at the 16:29 mark to tie the game at one, and that would be how the game would enter the final twenty minutes.
Mackie Samoskevich used his speed to draw a penalty early in the third, flying down the right wing and getting past Samuel Bolduc, who reached out with his stick and tripped the speedy rookie deep in the Isles zone.
The Panthers red-hot power play capitalized on the opportunity, and this time it was Tkachuk getting the goal. His deflection of a Sasha Barkov wrister put Florida ahead 2-1 with 14:01 to go in the period.
For the second straight night, the Panthers carried a lead into the final minutes of the third, and for the second straight night, Florida surrendered the game-tying goal.
Not to worry though, because for the second straight night, the Cats would earn the extra point and send the opposing fans home unsatisfied.
This time Florida got the job done during the five-minute overtime session, and it was Ekman-Larsson taking a nice feed from Evan Rodrigues and beating Varlamov over the blocker.
Panthers win on the road, again.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Saturday’s battle on the Island:
Ekman-Larsson logged a goal and two assists during the Cats’ road wins in Pittsburgh and Long Island.
Both of Florida’s regulation goals came on the power play, and they killed the only penalty called on the Cats, a first period minor to Jonah Gadjovich for tripping.
Reinhart has now scored in nine straight road games.
The Panthers improved to a league-best 20-0-4 when scoring first
Another game, another assist for Sasha Barkov. He’s got 18 over his past 14 games.
Tkachuk is now up to 11 goals and 27 points in 15 games since Jan. 29.
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