Sam Reinhart scored his 34th goal of the season, Carter Verhaeghe scored early in the third period, and Brandon Montour and Matthew Thachuk added empty net goals to give the Panthers a 4-1 win over the Predators.
The Nashville Predators welcomed the Florida Panthers to Bridgestone Arena tonight. The Predators entered tonight's game off of a loss on Saturday afternoon to the Arizona Coyotes, while the Panthers were on a four game losing streak.
Puck possession was dominated in the first period by the Panthers. Florida enjoyed extended zone time and the Predators struggled at times to exit the zone cleanly with the puck. The Predators earned the first power play of the game as Eetu Luostarinen headed to the penalty box at 10:52 for a slash, but neither of Nashville's power play units generated quality chances.
Florida continued their offensive push, but Juuse Saros tracked the puck well and handled each of the fourteen shots he faced in the first twenty minutes. The period ended scoreless but with the Panthers on a delayed penalty.
Juuse Saros was forced to make five big saves on the Panthers' power play to start the second period, helping the Predators survive the penalty. Nashville generated a handful of chances in the offensive zone through the first half of the period, but Anthony Stolarz covered the puck.
At 11:15 Yakov Trenin headed back to the box for a trip on Brandon Montour, and Sam Reinhart scored quickly to give the Panthers the 1-0 lead. The Predators answered back less than a minute later as Jeremy Lauzon scored from the blue line to tie the game up.
At 18:10 Yakov Trenin was whistled for boarding. Jonah Gadjovich took exception to the hit and dropped the gloves with Trenin. Both earned five minutes for fighting, and the Panthers got a power play for the Trenin boarding call. A cross check by Carter Verhaeghe twenty seconds into the man advantage evened out play to four on four. The period ended with ten seconds of four on four play carrying over into the third period and then a :29 Nashville power play.
The special teams time to start the third expired with little fanfare, and the teams returned to five a side. Verhaeghe came out of the box and scored at 1:12 to give Florida a 2-1 lead at even strength.
At 4:12 the Predators were whistled for too many men on the ice, and the Panthers went back on the power play. With :14 remaining in the penalty, Aaron Ekblad tripped Cole Smith. Gus Nyquist was robbed on the ensuing power play by a quick glove save by Stolarz. The power play expired, and the teams returned to full strength once more.
With 8:40 remaining, Filip Forsberg drew a tripping penalty, and Nashville got their fourth opportunity on the power play. Tommy Novak had a point blank chance in front of the goal, but again Stolarz made the stop. The Predators got one more power play chance as Aaron Ekblad was called for interference on Roman Josi with 5:10 left in the game. The first unit pressured Stolarz, but neither unit couldn't capitalize on the fifth power play chance.
With 2:11, Just Saros headed to the bench and the Preds added the extra attacker. Despite the Predators pressuring offensively, the Panthers added two empty net goals to make the final score 4-1.