It was an exciting night for the Panthers coming in off the announcement of the Four Nations rosters. Florida leads the NHL in most players named to teams at eight: Barkov (FIN), Luostarinen (FIN), Lundell, (FIN), Mikkola (FIN), Forsling (SE), Tkachuk (USA), Reinhart (CAN), and Bennett (CAN). Bill Ziton is working with Team USA, Patric Hornqvist will be the assistant GM for Team Sweden joined by Myles Fee as the video coach, and Tumo Ruutu was selected as Assistant Coach for Team Finland. Plenty of exciting news for the Cats ahead of their match with the Flyers. It was an odd game and the sentiment from HC Paul Maurice and the team was that that game was not how they want to win games going forward. Offensively it was a good night for the Cats as the power play came up big to help boost the team to the win. Defensively there’s still something to be desired at the moment with Florida giving up too many odd-man rushes and turnovers in their own zone. They paid for their sloppy play in the second which allowed the Flyers to tie the game going into the third but the Cats finished the game strong and weren’t rattled by the adversity.
Power Play Boost:
The Panthers started strong in the first period pressuring the Flyers throughout the opening twenty minutes. They didn’t give up much and got goals from Evan Rodrigues and Niko Mikkola. Rodrigues’ goal came as the result of strong forechecking and hard work as he tucked in the puck from the top of the crease. The play for Mikkola’s goal started with a layered forecheck from Jesper Boqvist which allowed Tkachuk to make the pass to Mikkola who ripped it to the net and the Cats left the first period with a 2-0 lead. It looked like Verhaeghe had scored on an early power play in the second but a successful coaches’ challenge for goalie interference took it off the board. Instead, it was Barkov receiving a no-look pass from Reinhart that he flipped over Kolosov; Fedotov had started the game but Philly swapped goalies at the start of the second period. A power play in the back half of the period was converted by Carter Verhaeghe for his eighth goal of the year. Tkachuk took the initial shot which got saved and Verhaeghe was right at the front of the net to pick up the rebound amongst the chaos and put it to the back of the net. Down one goal early in the third period, Florida responded with three unanswered goals. A shot from the blue line by Forsling floated in, Reinhart once again on the power play converted, and Tkachuk scored the empty net power play goal for the 7-5 win over Philly. Tkachuk ended the game with five points and has had back-to-back 4+ point games. On the night the power play went four for five, and in their last five games, it’s sitting at a blistering 52.6%.
Weathering The Adversity:
If the first period was all Panthers, the second was Philly fighting back. Florida had a 3-0 lead following the Barkov goal but then the Flyers came stroming back. A puck thrown toward the Panther net and a fortunate bounce off a skate allowed Foerster to get Philadelphia on the board during their power play. A risky pass from Florida results in a turnover and Seeler buries one to cut the lead to one, 3-2 FL lead. Two goals from Tippett in the final minutes tied the game 4-4 as things headed to intermission. It was a mixed bag period for the Cats with the mistakes ending up erasing all the good work they did to build the 3-0 lead. You’d like Knight to make a couple of more saves there but he’s a young goaltender with plenty of room to grow and rebuild his confidence at the NHL level. The defensive mistakes hurt the Panthers the most especially when they failed to clear the puck. Right now I think we’re seeing the slight holes in the d-core where Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson used to be, but I still have all faith in the personnel currently on the roster. Adam Boqvist, Nate Schmidt, and Uvis Balinskis are all capable of filling those gaps it’s just getting the consistency there and perhaps some better decision-making.
Finishing Strong:
The middle frame was a bit of a mess for Florida but they found a way to finish out the game on a stronger note. HC Paul Maurice wasn’t particularly happy with the manner in which they won, saying in his post-game presser that they hope it’s unique and that they don’t want to see that kind of game ever again. HC Paul Maurice doesn’t want Florida to rely on their power play to consistently win them games. Philly got their only lead of the game early in the third period off a Hathaway goal. The Flyers won the offensive zone faceoff and then got to the net where Hathaway put the puck away. Philadelphia had all the momentum until Gustav Forsling tied the game during a 4v4 with just over five minutes to go. A cross-check to Bennett from Farabee caused a rare sight as Forsling dropped gloves and was ready to fist fight, however, the refs broke it up before it escalated to a full-on fight that would require a five-minute major. The Panthers converted the power play to take the lead back. Andrae took a late tripping call which Tkachuk converted into the empty net power play goal to seal the deal with 11 seconds on the clock. Needless to say it was a rollercoaster of a game with plenty that the team can learn from despite getting the win.
Florida returns to Sunrise to take on the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
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