After they finally got their ideal lineup intact and beat Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, the Florida Panthers swore this time felt different. One of their most commanding wins of the season coming on the same day their lineup was fully healthy for the first had the Panthers believing their long-awaited turnaround was finally here, but they also knew none of their talk would mean anything unless they could finally start stringing together some wins.
They got a quick chance to back up their talk Tuesday when they hosted Vegas Golden Knights and they delivered with a 2-1 win against one of the league’s best teams in Sunrise.
The win alone was important — they now have their first two-game winning streak since before Valentine’s Day and will have a chance to win three in a row for only the second time all year Friday — and the way they did it was even more encouraging. Florida took a 1-0 lead in the first five minutes, used a dominant first two periods to go up 2-0 and never trailed on the way to another badly needed win.
The Panthers had a 16-7 advantage in 5-on-5 scoring chances in the first period and a 15-6 edge in 5-on-5 chances in the second, and only gave up a goal on a second-period power play when they were already ahead 2-0. Florida hasn’t given up an even-strength goal in two games and has only surrendered one in its last four.
A slew of penalties, however, kept the Panthers from ever quite putting away the Golden Knights. Vegas cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal with 6:37 left in the second period and then got another power-play chance in the third period of a one-goal game. In all, Florida committed five penalties and the Golden Knights got four power plays, but the Panthers went 3 of 4 on the penalty kill and rode two early goals to victory at FLA Live Arena.
Left wing Ryan Lomberg gave Florida the fast start it has often needed this year. A relentless forecheck let the Panthers spend the vast majority of the first period on Vegas’ end of the ice and Lomberg turned a strong start into a 1-0 when he sniped a shot past Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill with 15:35 still left in the first period.
In the second period, Florida doubled its lead and did it because of its newly full-strength lineup. With 15:55 left in the second, right wing Anthony Duclair drove to the net, fielded a pass and then teed up All-Star center Aleksander Barkov on the other side of the net for a one-timer, and 2-0 lead. Duclair only made his season debut less than two weeks ago and he only got to play with Barkov for the first time Saturday after the captain was dealing with an apparent hand injury for much of the prior two weeks.
The win will keep the Panthers within at least three points of a wild card with 17 games to play and still have four more in a row in Florida.
