For most of the final game of their post-break three-game road trip Sunday, the Florida Panthers did not play well. The Chicago Blackhawks, with the third worst record in the Western Conference, outshot them by eight in the opening period and ultimately held the Panthers’ league-best offense to just 25 shots on goal.
A month or two ago, this style of game could have been unwinnable for Florida, Andrew Brunette acknowledged. In the first few months of the season, his Panthers stumbled on the road because they couldn’t consistently win when opponents tried to craft a defensive struggle. It made their victory Sunday — a 5-2 win against the Blackhawks in Chicago — another encouraging step for the top team in the Eastern Conference.
“It was a good end to the road trip,” Brunette said after coaching Florida to a third road win in five days. “It wasn’t a pretty game, but we did enough.”
It amounted to something close to a textbook win in a low-possession game. Brunette sparked a mid-game turnaround by changing up his lineup and supercharging his top line by putting star forwards Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov together. The Panthers got three goals from defensemen, who provided different avenues to score with the Blackhawks keyed in on slowing Florida’s forwards. The Panthers also answered Chicago’s defensive mindset with one of their own, holding the Blackhawks to only 24 total shots on goal after they had 11 in the first period.
At one point this season, Florida was 4-4-5 on the road. Now the Panthers are .500 — 12-7-5 — after picking up road wins against the Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild and Chicago in the last week.
“It’s been one of our key conversations as a group to be better on the road,” defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. “That’ll go a long way down the road, especially in the playoffs, to win in other teams’ buildings.”
With an afternoon start to wrap up its three-game road trip after a two-week All-Star break, Florida was uncharacteristically lifeless on offense in the opening period. The Blackhawks outshot the Panthers, 11-3, in the first and they were tied 1-1 at the first intermission after star defenseman Aaron Ekblad and superstar right wing Patrick Kane traded goals.
At the start of the second period, there was some progress for Florida, but not enough, so Brunette went to an old standby secret weapon. With 13 minutes left in the second, the interim coach sent Barkov and Huberdeau on to the ice together, and it was exactly what the Panthers needed.
At center ice, Huberdeau intercepted a clear attempt along the left boards and quickly flipped a backhand pass to Barkov as the star center dashed into the offensive zone. Barkov drew three defenders toward him and held up in the slot to let Brandon Montour catch up, then dropped a pass back to the defenseman for an open wrist shot.
Montour’s shot pinged off the post and banked past star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to put Florida up 2-1 with 12:34 left in the second period.
Barkov, Huberdeau and winger Anthony Duclair played the rest of the game together, and the Panthers had a 9-2 edge in shot attempts when they were on the ice together for 5-on-5 action.
“We have so much skill and we can play at such a high level, sometimes we can get a little carried away,” Brunette said. “We did an excellent job this whole trip of playing road hockey and whatever they give us, we’re taking.
By the end of the second period, Florida nudged Chicago’s advantage in shots on goal down to 19-14 and the Panthers finished the game with a 25-24 edge.
In the first minute of the third period, Weegar scored to give Florida a 3-1 lead, which would hold up even after the Blackhawks scored on a power play to cut the lead back to 3-2 with 7:22 left.
Defensemen scored every Panthers goal, except for the two empty-netters in the final two minutes.
“We have good mobile defensemen out there,” Montour said. “Anybody from the back end can put the puck in the net.”
Barkov and fellow center Anton Lundell put the final touches on the win, and now the Panthers will go back to South Florida with a three-point — and growing — lead in the East.
Since the season restarted after the Christmas break and COVID-19 pause, Florida has won 17 of 21. Since the latest restart following the 2022 NHL All-Star Game, the Panthers are 3-0 with three road wins and a 14-6 goal differential.
