The Florida Panthers came up short Thursday night in Sunrise, but not for lack of effort.
Florida, still playing without stars Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, took the visiting Vancouver Canucks to overtime but failed to score two points and lost 3-2.
Vancouver struck first on a play that was not initially considered a goal. Teddy Blueger carried the puck behind the Florida net and wrapped it around Sergei Bobrovsky’s right post.
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Bobrovsky stretched out and made the save, but replay showed the puck had just crossed the goal line before Bob kicked it out of the net.
Don’t worry, though, as the Panthers responded just 11 seconds later.
Jesper Boqvist scored his first point as a Panther off an assist from Mackie Samoskevich, his first NHL point, and the game was tied again.
A call on Florida led to the game’s next goal.
Quinn Hughes fired a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky’s blocker just after the faceoff, a play that Florida challenged after the puck came straight out of Nils Aman’s glove and straight to Danton Heinen, who then passed it to Hughes in the point.
Florida challenged the blown stop call, but the on-ice call stood, with the NHL ruling that “the puck deflected off Nils Aman’s glove during the faceoff and therefore does not constitute a handoff.”
A terrifying moment came shortly after when Sam Reinhart collided with Jake DeBrusk and fell hard, holding his left arm as he skated off the ice.
Reinhart went to the Florida locker room for about 10 minutes, but returned to the game and looked no worse for the wear.
It took a little time and some big saves by Bobrovsky, but the Cats finally found the equalizer.
With Florida on a power play in the fourth period, Anton Lundell pulled the puck off the midboards and wristed a shot past Kevin Lankinen’s blocker and just inside the far post to send the game into the final frame tied at two.
Both goalies made great saves during the third period, but no goals were scored, so the game lasted over 60 minutes.
A nice play set up by Vancouver at the Panthers’ blue line sent JT Miller into space on the right side, and he scored past Bob’s blocker to give the Canucks their first win of the season.
To Las Vegas, Saturday morning.
QUICK THOUGHTS
This was Florida’s first overtime game of the season.
The Cats scored on their only power play attempt, improving their season numbers to 3-for-17.
They were also 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and have now eliminated 15 of their 17 power plays against.
Lundell has scored goals in three straight games for the second time in his career.
Tuesday’s game was Eetu Luostarinen’s 300th in the NHL.
Reinhart is up to nine points in Florida’s first six games after receiving an assist on Lundell’s power-play goal.
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