Before heading back out on the road, Florida wanted to bounce back from two bad games against the New Jersey Devils. The Panthers came out and made a big statement, picking up a huge win against the Winnipeg Jets. Unhappy with how their game looked against the Devils, the Cats came out with a lot of energy, and the game had a playoff-style feel to it. The offense got rolling again, with Florida scoring five goals on Hellebuyck. Defensively, the Panthers looked much better as they got into shooting lanes and boxed out the Jets from being net front. Frustration set in for the Jets as things got heated the longer the game went on and boiled over in the third period. Between the two teams, there were 74 total PIMs, with four players getting thrown out with game misconducts.
Offensive Depth Scoring:
After scoring just three goals in two games earlier this week, the Panthers found their offense again. The Panthers controlled much of the first period and held sustained zone pressure. They outshot the Jets 11-5 in the opening twenty minutes, the fewest SOG Winnipeg has been held to in a single period all season. Mackie Samoskevich drew back into the lineup after sitting out both games against the Devils, and he made an immediate impact on the game. In the first period, he threw a nice hit to force a turnover. The puck found its way to Forsling, who then made a crisp cross-ice pass to Samoskevich, who put it in the net on the glove side of Hellebuyck for the 1-0 lead with 5:01 on the clock. That would be the only goal scored for the period, and Florida busted the game wide-open in the middle frame. Early in the second, Bennett weaved his way through the defense with speed, and while his shot was saved, Schmidt was there to pick up the rebound and scored to give the Cats a 2-0 lead; the goal was Schmidt’s 50th goal of his career. Reinhart picked up the secondary assist and extended his points streak to ten games. With 7:39 on the clock, Rodrigues picked up a secondary rebound from Barkov’s rebound shot, which came from Ekblad’s initial shot, and tapped it in past Hellebuyck for the 3-0 lead. Rodrigues stayed patient near the crease, and that put him in the perfect position to pick up the loose puck. The Panthers didn’t stop there as they picked up one more goal in the period while short-handed. Ekblad (5:46, cross-checking) was in the box and gave the Jets their first power play, but it was Barkov with Reinhart for the 2-on-1 chance while on the PK. A great pass from Barkov to Reinhart allowed him to shoot, but the puck hit the post. Barkov picked up the rebounding puck in the slot and shot it home for the 4-0 lead heading into the final period of play. Just a few seconds into the Florida PP, Tkachuk (18:10, tripping) went to the box, and things went to 4v4. A simply lovely cross-ice pass from Barkov set up Kulikov for the tap-in goal and a 5-0 lead. Reinhart, with three assists, earned third-star honors, and Barkov got the first star with a goal and two assists. It was a great response game from Florida, and they played playoff-style hockey for a full 60 minutes.
Defensive Game Locked In:
A significantly better defensive game from Florida paid dividends. The Cats were boxing out the Jets and gave Bobrovsky every opportunity to see the pucks getting shot. The PK killed off the two Winnipeg power plays, and overall, the Panthers did a much better job of getting into the shooting and passing lanes to stop chances. While the Jets held the advantage in blocking shots (11-14), Florida was hard on the puck all night and putting in the extra effort to win board battles. The defensemen jumped up into the offense when opportunity arose and created a more well-rounded team, as fans are used to seeing from Florida. If there’s one area that needed improvement, it’s the faceoffs, where Winnipeg held a 23-35 advantage. Where the Jets were able to generate offensive pressure, Bob stood tall in the net and made all the saves he needed to finish the night with a 27-save shutout and second-star honors. This was Bob’s first shutout of the season and his first career shutout against Winnipeg.
Frustration Feeds Tempers:
Things were rather quiet in the first period, the second was when the Jets’ tempers started to heat up as the Panther made the lead larger and larger. It started on the Panthers’ end as Kupari cross-checked Nosek into the end boards. Florida, being Florida, didn’t like that and got into with the Jets. Ekblad picked up his own cross-checking penalty with just under six minutes to go, but no other scums broke out. Things got out of hand in the third, where four players were thrown out, and the Panthers went 3 for 3 on fighting their opponents this week. Scheifele (1:33, roughing) was the first player to the box, followed quickly by Tkachuk (1:50, tripping). A late hit on Forsling set off a fight between Ekblad and Scheifele, with both players picking up five-minute majors. Greer threw a good hit and then shoved Miller to the ice, causing retaliation from the Jets as Miller and one other player jumped him. Both Greer and Miller were given game misconducts and thrown out with just under four minutes to play. They were followed quickly by Poink and Bennett, who also were thrown out about thirty seconds later after another scrum. It looked like things were settling down until a reverse hit from Jesper Boqvist, where he mostly just leaned back into the incoming hit, set off Namestnikov, who was given a roughing penalty and then thrown out. All in all, it was a typical Panther game by the end of it, with plenty of PIMs to go around.
Florida heads on the road to Winnipeg for a rematch on Tuesday.
