Stolarz made 45 saves as Florida defeated the Buffalo Sabres 2-0
The traveling train that is the Florida Panthers barreled its way through Buffalo on Thursday night.
Playing on the second night of a back-to-back, Florida battled hard on tired legs and received an excellent effort in goal from Anthony Stolarz, defeating the host Sabres by a final score of 4-0.
Carter Verhaeghe’s 27th goal of the season opened the scoring in Buffalo, coming on a play that started with a steal and pass from Sasha Barkov.
The Sabres really turned up the pressure after falling behind, outshooting the Panthers 17-7 during the middle frame but coming up empty on each of them.
The strong play by Stolarz allowed Florida to take a two-goal lead into the second intermission thanks to delayed penalty goal by Anton Lundell.
Matthew Tkachuk came off the bench as an extra attacker and fired a shot from the point that glanced off Lundell and Sabres goalie Eric Comrie’s glove before fluttering into the net.
That would be all required for Stolarz to close out the victory, Florida’s tenth straight on the road, but Verhaeghe added an empty-netter just for good measure, and a last minute Panthers power play resulted in a rewarding tally for Ryan Lomberg.
Stolarz finished with 45 saves in the win, his seventh career shutout and first as a member of the Panthers.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Thursday’s battle in Buffalo:
Florida’s penalty kill was perfect again, keeping a clean sheet on Buffalo’s two opportunities.
Stolarz made ten high danger saves, according to Natural Stat Trick, including a breakaway stop on JJ Paterka in the final minute of the game.
Barkov’s assist on Verhaeghe’s first period goal was his 40th apple of the season.
Verhaeghe is now up to 28 goals and 55 points through 54 games. He’s scored four goals over Florida’s past five games.
Florida has now equaled their road win total from all of last season, when they went 19-19-3 away from Sunrise.
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