Following two great wins over Carolina, the Panthers headed on the road to take on the Penguins. Both teams were on a three-game win streak going into Tuesday’s game, and the Cats would be without two players in their lineup, Sergei Bobrovsky and Mackie Samoskevich. Bobrovsky and his wife are expecting their second child, so he’s not on the road trip. Due to cap restraints, the Panthers sent Samoskevich down to Charlotte so they could call up Chris Driedger; Samoskevich is the only player who doesn’t require waivers to be sent down. The game against the Penguins was a mixed bag, there were good things to take from it as well as bad, but all around it was an odd game of hockey that went into overtime and a non-call on one of the Penguins players holding a Panthers’ player stick gave them a 2 on 1 opportunity that ended the game.
Controlling The Offensive Zone:
The Panthers dominated the offensive zone for the entire game. The forecheck was going early to establish the tone and Florida had plenty of shots on goal throughout the game. They ended with 41 SOG and 38 hits so the two big pieces of their game were going the way they wanted it to. The Cats pressured Jarry all night long and finally broke through in the final period where they scored three goals in the first half to tie the game and send it to overtime. Even early on the pressure they got made it look like they were going to score first and play with the lead. Florida held Pittsburgh to just 16 SOG but the Penguins also blocked 21 of the Cats’ shots. There were Pens’ players all over the shooting and passing lanes while the Panthers were in their zone. Florida got goals from Tkachuk (2G), Bennett (1G), and A. Boqvist (1G). Florida had two goals go in from the top of the faceoff circles, one from the slot, and one that got tipped in from in front of the net. They had shots from all over the ice but the majority came from the right side all along the faceoff circle and slot. Generally, four goals is enough to win you a game but not when the Panthers had to battle back from being down 1-4 to tie it and get at least a point.
Matthew Tkachuk Standout Performance:
Tkachuk had one of his best games of the season against Pittsburgh. He and his line were causing all types of issues for the Penguins and were responsible for three out of the four goals. Tkachuk had a four-point night with two goals and two assists and had a hand in every goal the team scored. His primary assist on the Adam Boqvist goal was simply lovely as he saw the situation and made a great pass to Adam who put the puck in the net. Tkachuk got the team on the board late in the first period off a wrister shot from the edge of the faceoff circle and cut the lead down to one goal 1-2 heading into the first intermission. Tkachuk’s work along the boards to get the puck to Jesper Boqvist ultimately set up Bennett for the second goal of the night. Tkachuk himself tied the game on a power play goal where he tipped in Ekblad’s shot and sent the game into OT after neither team scored again in the second half of the period. In his post-game presser, HC Paul Maurice said that Tkachuk is extremely in tune with the emotional side of playing hockey and that he knows how to get under an opponent’s skin or poke at players who might be struggling. He also said that Tkachuk knows when his team needs a big hit or big play to get things going emotionally for the bench.
Mistakes Proved Costly:
Despite controlling so much of the game the Panthers’ few mistakes gave the Penguins all the opportunity they needed to build a 1-4 lead going into the final part of the match. It looked like the Panthers had opened the scoring on a Jesper Boqvist goal but a successful offsides challenge took the goal off the board. Pittsburgh then used that momentum and turned the game into a 0-2 lead with their first goal coming off a shot from the blue line by Pickering. The traffic in front of Knight made it hard for him to see the puck and it breezed by him. The second goal came from Malkin who the Cats didn’t successfully cover and the Penguins entered their zone. A cross-ice feed from Tomasino to a wide-open Malkin got the puck to the back of the net for the two-goal lead. The only goal of the third period came from Letang who was the beneficiary of a puck rimming around the boards at speed right to him. He ripped his quick shot and an unfortunate screen by Schmidt gave Knight no chance to see the puck before it went in. Pettersson cut behind the defense and then flipped the puck over Knight’s pads for their fourth goal of the night. HC Paul Maurice said that there might’ve been a little frustration from the Panthers on not looking exactly the way they’d like to but there wasn’t frustration from thinking that they were right there and things just weren’t going their way. Tkachuk and A. Boqvist echoed that sentiment in a different way, both telling the media that the Panthers didn’t get enough traffic to the net until the final period when they had more success.
Florida will look to bounce back against the Flyers on Thursday.
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