Tuesday night saw the conclusion of the Panthers’ four-game road trip with a rematch against St. Louis. The last time these teams saw each other, St. Louis came out on top, and it’s also the last time Florida lost since the start of their current win streak. The Cats were looking for redemption and to extend the win streak to 8 games while St. Louis looked to sweep the season series. Florida saw great performances from Matthew Tkachuk & Anthony Stolarz, and the 3rd-period performance is now a trend for this team.
Matthew Tkachuk is back to form:
There was plenty of talk about Tkachuk at the start of the season and how his stats were down from 2022-23. Keep in mind that during the Stanley Cup Finals, he broke his sternum and has been recovering from that injury. However, since the start of the year, Tkachuk has returned to his old self, scoring goals and coming in clutch for the team when needed. He had plenty of scoring chances in the first two periods, getting good shots on goal but just not finding the back of the net. That would change in the 3rd period, as true to form, the Cats’ scoring ramped up in the last 20 minutes. With a 2-1 lead headed into the final period, Florida would score three more goals to get the win, all of them coming from Matthew Tkachuk. Two goals came from Tkachuk shooting the puck himself, and the last one came off of a tip on a shot from Forsling for the natural hat trick. His third hat trick as a Panther and a four-point game earned him first-star honors.
Anthony Stolarz a solid back up:
It was Stolarz’s net against the Blues after Bobrovsky started the other three games on the road trip. The Blues looked hot early and held a decent amount of offensive zone time during the match. Stolarz was locked in though coming up with all the big saves needed to keep the Panthers in the lead, the team only trailing in the first period when Brayden Schenn scored off a loose puck opportunity. It would be the only goal on the night for St. Louis as Stolarz went on to make 30 saves and posted a .967%. The 6’6 goalie made plenty of kick saves and used his whole frame to make scoring extremely difficult for the Blues. The goaltending for the Panthers has been excellent this season, with both goalies having a save percentage over .910 while allowing in 2.45 goals or less.
3rd Period Strength:
It’s now a pattern, quickly becoming the standard that the Cats’ score in the 3rd period. Florida is out-scoring teams 17-5 right now in the final frame of play, with four recent games having the offense score three goals to suffocate opponents. St. Louis is now the latest victim to the lethal Panthers 3rd-period offense. Tkachuk scored his hat trick all in the 3rd period, they scored three goals against the Avalanche in the last period, and they scored three goals in the 3rd against both Arizona on Jan. 2nd and Montreal on Dec. 30th. Florida has scored at least a goal in the final 20 minutes in every game since the Tampa Bay game on Dec. 27th. This team is dangerous at any given time, but especially in the last period of play.
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