Panthers pick up first win in Vegas, lose Barkov and Rodrigues to injury
Florida's season-high six-game winning streak includes a pair of wins over the Golden Knights
It took several years and a few heartbreaking postseason meetings, but the Florida Panthers finally learned what it felt like to leave Las Vegas as winners.
Including the playoffs, Florida had been 0-7-1 when playing in Vegas.
It was an ugly streak in a building that was quickly becoming a house of horrors. Thankfully, the Panthers were able to exercise any demons with Thursday’s 4-1 win.
Unfortunately, as do most things in Las Vegas, Florida’s win came at a cost, as two key forwards were lost to injuries.
Vegas jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Pavel Dorofeyev pounced on a Mark Stone rebound that came off Sergei Bobrovsky’s pad and went right to a driving Dorofeyev in the slot.
Bobrovsky came up with several big saves in the minutes after the goal, including a couple show stoppers on Jonathan Marchessault, to keep Florida within one.
A late period power play would produce a game-tying goal for the Panthers, and it came off the stick of Sam Bennett following a great shift by the Florida’s second power play unit.
Panthers captain Sasha Barkov went to the locker room soon after the goal due to taking an Alec Martinez elbow to the face behind the Vegas goal.
It didn’t appear there was any intent by Martinez on the play, but Barkov would ultimately be ruled out of the game with an upper-body injury.
Florida got another power play goal to take their first lead of the game, and this time it would come off the stick of Matthew Tkachuk.
Another Panthers player who stayed hot was Carter Verhaeghe. His 20th of the season late in the second gave Florida a 3-1 lead.
For only the second time this season, Florida cashed in for the third time while on the man advantage.
This time it would be Sam Reinhart, who picked up his NHL-leading 12th power play goal just over five minutes into the final frame.
A season-high sixth straight win will be enjoyed by the Panthers, but the focus will obviously be on the health of Barkov and Rodrigues in the coming days.
Next up for the Panthers is a date with the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Thursday’s tilt in Vegas:
Not only did Florida’s penalty kill go a perfect 5-for-5 in Vegas, the Panthers PK also killed off 1:59 of 5-on-3 time early in the second period.
Over his past nine games, Bennett has 4 goals and seven points.
Tkachuk has scored goals in consecutive games for the first time this season. His goal and assist in Vegas give him six points over a four-game points streak and 10 points over his past nine games overall.
Make it four straight games with a goal and an assist for Verhaeghe. He’s trending toward his second straight 40-goal season, currently with 20 goals through 38 games.
Reinhart has eight goals over his past eight games. He’s up to 25 on the season.
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