Florida Panthers
Barkov Gives the Florida Panthers Juice in Comeback Win
SUNRISE — Sam Reinhart may have scored twice, and Anton Lundell tied things up, but Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice credited captain Sasha Barkov for setting Sunday’s win against the Penguins in motion.
Speaking of motion, the Panthers were certainly going through them in a first period in which they were outshot 16-4.
Reinhart opened the scoring, but the Panthers were being outplayed by a Pittsburgh team realistically out of the playoff race and now just playing loose and free.
Down a goal going into the second period, Barkov put a hit on Matt Grzelcyk 23 seconds in that let Maurice know the Panthers were ready to go.
“We were slow in the first,’’ Maurice said. “[Barkov] throws a hit on the first shift of the second period and, after that, our game just rounded and we got better.”
The Panthers ended up rallying from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Penguins 4-3 in a shootout.
Barkov, naturally, scored the only goal in the three-round shootout.
The Panthers had a rough six-game road trip, one in which they won two of the six, and came hope trying to capture some of the magic they had before leaving two weeks ago.
Barkov helped get the Panthers going.
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“It wasn’t a great start for us,’’ Barkov said. “[Pittsburgh] played really well in the first. We didn’t play the way we wanted to but we figured it out in the second. We knew what we needed to do and we tried to do it for the rest of the game.
“We had a tough road trip. We didn’t get the points we wanted to. It’s always nice to come back home and play in front of our own fans. I think that gave us a little boost there to compete a little harder– and we did in the second and the third, so we’re happy with that.”
With the win, the Panthers took sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division after taking a four-point lead on Toronto after beating the Maple Leafs on March 13.
The Panthers then lost three of the final four, but Toronto and Tampa Bay have not exactly set the world on fire, so, things are OK.
“We were resilient in our game,’’ said Reinhart, who made it 1-0 in the first, then pulled the Panthers within a goal with his second goal of the game in the second.
”Coming out for the second, there were some things we changed up and got back to our identity a little bit. We didn’t force anything. We didn’t try and press anything and we were able to stick with it. We started to control the play a little bit more. We were patient with it and got rewarded.”
The Panthers have played three games in four nights twice now in the past couple of weeks.
They now find themselves with some down time with their next game not until Friday against the Utah Hockey Club.
Florida will not practice the next two days, some time off to get right before the final stretch of the regular season comes crashing down.
Again, for whatever missteps the team is guilty of lately, things ain’t bad in Pantherland.
ON DECK: GAME No. 73
UTAH HOCKEY CLUB at FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Friday, 7 p.m.
- Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
- Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
- National TV: NHL Network
- Local Streaming Only: Panthers+
- Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
- Season Series (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Utah: Panthers 4, Utahs 1 (Jan. 8). At Florida: Friday.
- Last Season vs. Arizona Coyotes: Florida Won 2-0
- All-time Regular Season Series vs. Coyotes/Utahs: Florida leads 22-20-0, 3 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Sunday vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1 p.m.
