Florida wanted to rebound after the loss to Carolina on Thursday. Despite it being a loss that the refs had a large hand in, it was still a loss. The Panthers came out better to start this match with the Penguins, but with the same officiating crew as the previous day, the calls went as predicted. The Penguins had more than twice the amount of power plays as the Cats. In contrast to the last meeting in Pittsburgh, this game was a low-scoring event with both goalies very sharp and big saves especially in overtime. Sixty-five minutes wasn’t enough to declare a winner where the Panthers earned the extra point to keep pace for the lead in the Atlantic.
Penalties Everywhere:
Round two with this officiating crew was somehow arguably worse than the Carolina game. The first penalty was a high-sticking double minor called on Reinhart. While the double minor part is warranted as blood was drawn, what doesn’t make sense about the call is that the Penguin player lifted Reinhart’s stick into his own face. Refs make bad calls, and that one you can excuse because it’s possible they didn’t see the lift. The Panthers killed off the double minor without one of their best penalty killers and got some shorthanded changes. The second period is where the penalties got out of hand. A. J. Greer got called for two separate high-sticking incidents, one minor and one double-minor. Florida killed off two of the three minors, with Crosby scoring on the first half of the double-minor call on a one-timer shot from the slot. A scrum later in the period resulted in Rakell (hooking), Rust (roughing-removing opp. helmet), Bunting (roughing), Rodrigues (roughing), and Tkachuk (unsportsmanlike conduct, 10-minute misconduct) all getting called at the same time. The Tkachuk misconduct was extremely harsh, especially after Crosby shot a puck at him after the play was whistled dead, which set off the scrum to begin with. Pettersson took the final penalty of the period getting called for tripping. What wasn’t called was Greer getting tripped by Jarry, Rodrigues getting taken out by Joseph, or Tkachuk getting tripped during OT. Don’t worry, though, because the refs did call a too-many-men penalty on the Penguins only to rescind the call, their explanation being that the linesman was in the way despite the fact that the sixth-player played the puck for Pitt. Needless to say, fans in person and on X were both mad about the officiating for a second straight game and borderline laughing at the absurdity of it all. Penalties in the third went to Joseph (cross-checking), Ekblad (hooking), and a bad penalty by Bennett (roughing). The Penguins tied the game for a second time on a near-identical goal during the 6v4 power-play with 41 seconds on the clock and sent the game to overtime.
Goalie Battle:
Spencer Knight got the start for the Panthers and played one of his best games of the season. He ended the night with a .935 SV%, stopped 29 of 31 shots, and made two huge saves in the shootout on Rakell and Crosby for the win. Knight had a busy first period, with Pitt outshooting the Cats 10-13 and at one point were outshooting them 8-12. One of his best saves of the season came in the first period, where he made a huge pad save on Rust early in the first. He made another big save in the third period on Acciari, who was close to the net. His save on Bunting in the final period with 8:52 left on the clock drew the biggest cheer from the crowd. When asked about the save post-game, Knight said he didn’t really know what happened and that his body had just reacted. Neither side had much luck scoring, with both teams only finding the back of the net twice. OT was busy for both goalies as each side had scoring chances but didn’t convert. Forsling opened the scoring quickly in the second period for the Panthers after quick puck movement spread the defense out enough, and screens out front took away Jarry’s eyes; Barkov and Reinhart got the assists. Coming back from his 10-minute misconduct, Tkachuk scored on the powerplay with the Verhaeghe shot tipping in off of him with Adam Boqvist on the secondary assist. Jarry ended the night with a .939 SV%, stopping 31 of 33 shots but only one save in the shootout on Barkov.
Shootout Heroics:
With the game going the distance, the extra point was earned in the shootout. Florida’s been fantastic in shootouts over the last couple of seasons, their last shootout win was last month against the Seattle Kraken. As usual, Barkov started the shootout for the Panthers, but Jarry made the save on his backhand shot. Knight faced down Rakel,l who went for the backhanded shot but was unsuccessful. Sam Reinhart showed off his great shot and scored on a slapshot to give the Panthers the advantage. Knight took on Crosby next and came out victorious. When asked about his save, Knight responded, “It’s cool, right? I grew up watching him, almost my whole life. Just a tremendous player. Just to be on the same ice as him is cool and an honor.” Lundell entered the zone and sent his shot in on the far blocker side to score and secure the win. He earned first-star honors, Tkachuk was named the second-star, and Knight got third-star honors.
HC Paul Maurice said in his post-game that there are guys fighting through things to play at the moment and that things haven’t been easy. He was happy with the team’s mood and that they played hard. Florida heads on the road to take on the Avalanche, a first meeting with Utah in Salt Lake, and a final home meeting with Boston to end the week.
Headed Into The New Year – Inside The Rink
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