In the blink of an eye, the Florida Panthers’ lead had vanished. All it took was nine seconds early in the second period for the Pittsburgh Penguins to score back-to-back goals on Sergei Bobrovsky and level the game on Tuesday.
Florida ensured Pittsburgh’s comeback attempt ended there.
Anthony Duclair scored the go-ahead goal on the power play four minutes later and Bobrovsky stopped 21 of the final 22 shots that came his way as the Panthers beat the Penguins 4-3 at PPG Paints Arena. Florida (39-13-5) swept its road back-to-back that began with a 6-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday and, at 83 points, remains in first place in the Atlantic Division albeit with one more game played than the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning.
Duclair’s power-play goal was his 23rd of the season, tying his single-season career-high set in the 2019-2020 season while with the Ottawa Senators. He received a pass in the slot from Jonathan Huberdeau before firing a wrist shot past Tristan Jarry.
Sam Reinhart and Aaron Ekblad scored about two minutes apart to give the Panthers the early 2-0 lead in the first period.
The early cushion was needed to withstand Pittsburgh’s mini scoring barrage early in the second period. Bryan Rust cut Florida’s lead to 2-1 3:07 into the first period when he tipped in a Marcus Pettersson shot in front of the nine. Nine seconds later, Jake Guentzel took a pass from Sidney Crosby off an offensive zone faceoff and fired a snap shot into the net to tie the game at 2-2.
Duclair gave Florida the lead four minutes later, Carter Verhaeghe made it 4-2 midway through the third with a snap shot while on a two-on-one rush with Aleksander Barkov. Pittsburgh (34-15-9) cut its deficit to one when Sidney Crosby scored with 2:09 left after the Penguins pulled Jarry but would get no closer.
The Panthers return to Sunrise for one home game on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers before playing their next seven games on the road.
Injury update
Rookie center Anton Lundell did not play Tuesday after sustaining a lower-body injury in the first period against Buffalo on Monday.
Interim coach Andrew Brunette classified Lundell’s status as “day-to-day.”
“We’ll kind of know more in the next day or so as to the extent of it,” Brunette said. “We don’t expect it to be too long.”
With Lundell sidelined, Maxim Mamin returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 24 after being a healthy scratch for four consecutive games and the Panthers’ lines were impacted as a result.
Mamin primarily played as the right wing on Florida’s top line with Verhaeghe and Barkov.
Mason Marchment moved down to the third line, where Eetu Luostarinen took over at center in Lundell’s absence and Reinhart remained at right wing.
Noel Acciari centered the fourth line with Frank Vatrano and Patric Hornqvist on the wings.
Knight sent down
Spencer Knight’s latest stint with the Panthers lasted just one game.
The Panthers on Tuesday sent the ballyhooed 20-year-old goaltender back to the Charlotte Checkers, their American Hockey League affiliate, one day after he held the Sabres to one goal and recorded 29 saves. It was his first NHL start since Feb. 1.
“I think we’ll see him here again as some point,” Brunette said. “You guys watched him [Monday] night; he was outstanding. This is part of his development, the road we have for him. We’ll see how he does.”
For now, the Panthers will continue to ride Bobrovsky in net with Jonas Johannson serving as his backup.
The Panthers do have a pair of road back-to-backs coming up on their schedule — March 17 and 18 against the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks and then March 26 and 27 against the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.
