Florida scored a pair of power play goals while going a perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill

Amerant Bank Arena was packed full of Florida Panthers fans on Saturday and the home team sent their followers home for holidays with a smile.

Leaning on a strong game by Florida’s special teams units, the Panthers came from behind to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2.

It was the first meeting between the two since Vegas took down the Panthers in five games during last season’s Stanley Cup Final.

Florida appeared to have revenge on the mind and came out firing, putting up the first eleven shots on goal.

The first fireworks of the game came courtesy of Ryan Lomberg’s right fist. Perhaps looking for some payback for the hit that broke Matthew Tkachuk’s sternum during last year’s Stanley Cup Final, Lomberg challenged Vegas’ forward Keegan Kolesar to a fight midway through the first period.

It didn’t last long as Lomberg only needed one punch to take Kolesar to the ice.

Shots on goal after the first 20 minutes were tilted quite in Florida’s favor at 20-3, but the game remained scoreless. Overall shot attempts were 39-6 Panthers.

Getting dominated during the opening frame didn’t’ stop the Golden Knights from scoring the game’s opening goal.

Just 1:21 into the second period, Mark Stone took a nice feed off Ivan Barbashev from below the goal line and beat Sergei Bobrovsky over the blocker.

A snipe off the stick of Sam Bennett from inside the right circle would slide right underneath Jiri Patera’s glove and into the net, tying the game at one.

It took 28 shots, but Florida finally got one past the young Czech goaltender.

Another five shots and the Panthers would take their first lead of the game thanks to a slapshot from just inside the blue line off the stick of defenseman Gus Forsling.

The lead wouldn’t last terribly thanks to a goal by Pavel Dorofeyev with 22.3 seconds left in the second period. Aaron Ekblad failed to tie up Ben Hutton along the boards, and he found Dorofeyev for a back door goal that slid past a sprawling Bobrovsky.

A rare Panthers power play tally would put the home team ahead about six minutes into the third.

Verhaeghe corralled a pass from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and changed the angle of his shot at the last second, wiring a wrister over Patera’s glove and into the top corner of the net.

Less than two minutes later, another Vegas penalty would lead to another Panthers power play goal.

This time it was Sam Reinhart getting in on the fun, scoring from his usual spot between the circles to give Florida a 4-2 lead.

That would be all Florida needed to pick up a pleasant victory before heading into the NHL’s annual holiday break.

The Panthers will be back in action on Wednesday for their first game of the season against rival Tampa Bay.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Here are some thoughts and observations from Saturday’s battle with Vegas:

Vegas’ expected goals during the opening frame was 0.08, according to Natural Stat Trick, compared to Florida’s 1.67.

Florida scored a pair of power play goals for the first time since Nov. 27 against Ottawa. They were also a perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

With a pair of assists, Sasha Barkov is up to 32 points through 30 games this season.

Verhaeghe’s third period power play goal was his 100th tally as a Panther. 

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