Both Florida's Sam Bennett and Chicago's Connor Bedard scored twice on Sunday

The Florida Panthers finished out a quick two-game homestand with a win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday afternoon.

There was plenty of firepower from both teams, but it was the Cats that came out on top and sent the Panthers faithful home happy.

Florida got things off to a great start on the first shift of the game, and it was the top line that was the catalyst.

A pretty passing play that touched the stick of all three forwards and spanned both sides of Chicago’s zone ended with an open net for Oliver Ekman-Larsson to tap the puck into from the top of the crease.

A whole 39 seconds into the game, it was already 1-0 Florida.

The Blackhawks evened the score midway through the period when a shot that went wide of the net found its way back in front, and Jason Dickinson was there to pop it between Sergei Bobrovsky’s pads.

Samson Reinhart stayed hot for Florida, scoring on a nice deflection of a Matthew Tkahcuk wrist shot just past the midway point of the season, but rookie sensation Connor Bedard tied the game in the final minute after striping the puck off Kevin Stenlund’s stick deep in the Panthers zone.

There was plenty of excitement in the middle frame, with both Reinhart and Bedard scoring again before things got heated when Dmitry Kulikov put Bedard into the boards with a clean check late in the period.

Nick Foligno immediately went after Kulikov, first hooking him to the ground before giving him a few shots to the face.

Florida ended up with four minutes of power play time but failed to score, and the game would go to the third knotted at three apiece.

It wouldn’t take long for the Cats to redeem themselves while up a man. An early third period power play ended with a Carter Verhaeghe goal and another assist for Reinhart.

Bobrovsky let in a few iffy goals in this one, but he was strong down the stretch, keeping Chicago at bay despite a furious flurry in the game’s final minutes.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Sunday’s win over the Blackhawks:

Reinhart finished with 2 goals and 2 assists. It was his fourth straight multi-point outing. He’s up to 11 goals and 21 points through Florida’s first 14 games.

Florida put up 31 shots on Sunday, on an impressive 71 attempts. The Blackhawks had some decent patches during the game, but it was a dominant effort by Florida when looking at the possession numbers.

Sam Bennett’s season debut was a bit of a mixed bag. His line was extremely solid when looking at the advanced metrics, but he also took two penalties. The lasting memory from Sunday will be Bennett’s diving zone clear in the game’s final seconds to help seal the win.

To the surprise of very few, reuniting Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen provided some excellent results. At 5-on-5, their line with Nick Cousins held a 4-0 edge in scoring chances while allowing no high-danger opportunities or rush attempts, per Natural Stat Trick. 

Bobrovsky ended up stopping 24 of 27 shots against, including the final 17 in a row. You know what they say…it’s not how you start. 

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