Panthers wrap up homestand with 3-2 comeback win over Seattle
Florida climbs above .500 for the first time after opening season 3-1-0 on home ice
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports - Panthers wrap up homestand with 3-2 comeback win over SeattleThe Florida Panthers didn’t let a little thing like falling behind 2-0 stop them from closing out their homestand with a win.
Florida scored three unanswered goals to pick up their fourth victory in five games, defeating the Seattle Kraken 3-2.
The first period was highlighted by the goaltending, as both Sergei Bobrovsky for Florida and Seattle’s Joey Daccord finished the opening frame with 14 saves apiece.
After falling behind 2-0 on goals by Jared McCann and Eeli Tolvanen, the Panthers got the home crowd going with a pair of goals 11 seconds apart.
First it was Gus Forsling cashing in on the power play with a laser from the blue line, and moments later Matthew Tkachuk scored his first goal of the season on a nice deflection of a Dmitry Kulikov wrister.
The Panthers thought they had their first lead of the night late in the second period, but Sam Reinhart’s sharp angle snipe was called off after a review determined the play had been offside when Reinhart brought the puck into the Seattle zone.
A tightly contested third period would break in the Cats favor thanks to a fluky bounce off the boards.
Josh Mahura dumped the puck into Seattle’s zone and as Daccord moved behind the net to play it, the puck took a sharp turn off the glass and directly to the front of the unattended net.
Nick Cousins was in the right place at the right time and deposited the puck into the yawning cage to put the Panthers up for good.
Here are some thoughts and observations form Saturday’s game against Seattle:
Florida entered the game having scored one power play goal in its last 11 opportunities. The Cats started their first power play with Mathew Tkachuk and the second unit of Verhaeghe, Lundell, Cousins, Forsling on the ice.
Another solid game between the pipes for Sergei Bobrovsky, and his rebound control was on point for a fourth straight outing.
Ryan Lomberg was bumped up to the third line for the first time this season and looked quite good with Cousins on the opposite wing, whether it be with Lundell or Eetu Luostarinen at center.
Looking into the advanced statistics, Florida’s top line of Sasha Barkov centering Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart struggled for much of the game, which is something far different than we'd seen in recent outings.
It was the opposite situation for Lundell, who boosted up whichever line he was centering tonight. After a strong first period, Lundell was moved up to center the second line between Verhaeghe and Tkachuk.
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