Florida concluded its road trip in St. Paul to take on the Minnesota Wild. Emotions ran high between the teams, with multiple scrums breaking out, and few teams playing as well as the Panthers when they’re playing emotional hockey. The Cats played hard and physical, not giving Minnesota much open ice to work with. Strong performances from Aaron Ekblad and Matthew Tkachuk headlined a great team effort. HC Paul Maurice said he wasn’t happy with their defense during the rush following the Edmonton game, and his team responded with a much better effort against the Wild. Depth scoring supported the strong defensive game, and Florida ended its road trip with a win as the team battles illness; Bennett was unavailable due to illness, and Barkov missed the last game against Edmonton.
Leadership Shines Bright:
The Florida leaders stepped up Wednesday night against the Wild and led the team to victory as the Cats went 3-2-0 on their five-game road trip. Aaron Ekblad opened the scoring on a shot from the high slot that hit the post on the blocker side and bounced in. The Panthers did good work in the offensive zone, going low to high to give Ekblad the chance to score. He had a three-point night with one goal and two assists. He had another strong night defensively as well and was all over puck carriers in the defensive zone. Ekblad also made nice plays with his stick to break up centering passes and cross-ice passes. Up by just a goal in the second period, Matthew Tkachuk took matters into his own hands and scored two goals in the middle frame to give the Panthers a 4-1 lead going into the third. Both goals came from his net-front presence and refusal to give up on a play. He got his stick into good positions to put the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury. With Bennett out, Tkachuk was playing up with Barkov and Verhaeghe, and while that’s not a normal line for Florida, it was effective. It looked like Barkov had scored the third goal for the Cats, but it was called back for offsides that happened about 45 seconds prior to the goal. Ekblad earned first-star honors, Barkov second-star, and Tkachuk third-star.
Strong Defense After Getting Called Out:
HC Paul Maurice was unhappy with the rush defense after the Edmonton game. He called his team out in his post-game presser, and the team responded with a great showing against Minnesota. The Panthers gave up almost nothing to the Wild, and players made a harder effort to get back when there was a rush chance of developing. Florida also got back to their defense as a team concept and the five-man units looked much more cohesive in St. Paul than they have as of late. Players were hard on the puck carriers as the Wild attempted to make zone entries, passes were broken up, shots were blocked, and the forechecking kept its presence up for the entire game. The Cats ended the night with 11 blocked shots and 40 hits, compared to Minnesota’s nine blocked shots and 24 hits. While the Panthers did give up a power play goal it was the only goal that the Wild scored. Bobrovsky ended his night with a .963 SV% and stopped 26 of 27 shots.
Goal Support:
It wasn’t just the leadership that was scoring though, the Cats got goals from all over the lineup. The game was tied 1-1 with less than three minutes to go in the first period when Mackie Samoskevich scored his sixth goal of the season. He sniped a shot in from the faceoff circle after he did a great job making sure he stayed onside. His shot went in on the top corner after hitting both the post and crossbar before bouncing in for the 2-1 lead. He’s had some fantastic shots this season, but that one was one of his best. He beat Fleury cleanly and is playing well so far this season. With Montour gone, Ekblad and Mikkola are stepping up and scoring goals for the defensemen. Mikkola scored his fifth goal of the season in the third period on a long wrister shot that went in just under Fleury’s glove arm and put the Cats up 5-1. He’s now posted a career-high four goals and has goals in back-to-back games. Luostarinen scored his fourth goal of the season after his initial shot hit Faber, he picked up the rebound and put it in the back of the net with 32 seconds left on the clock. The Luostarinen-Lundell-Reinhart line has been working well and is something the Panthers can easily go back to when a player like Bennett or Barkov is out. Luostarinen’s main impact usually comes on defense, but he does have a wicked shot as well when the opportunity arises for him to use it.
The Cats posted six goals in back-to-back games following poor offensive production against Vancouver and Calgary. Florida heads back home to Sunrise to take on St. Louis on Friday.
ITR 40: Headed For A Repeat? – Inside The Rink
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