George Richards, FHN Publisher
Patric Hornqvist said before Saturday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes that the Panthers power play would be better than it was on Thursday.
It would have been tough to be worse. But, Florida’s penalty kill certainly was much improved.
The Panthers found themselves down two goals early in the third period, but a shorthanded goal by Alex Wennberg tied the score and gave the Panthers a much-needed boost.
That allowed Sasha Barkov to win it with a spectacular no-look shot to lead the Panthers to a 4-3 win just 24 seconds into overtime.
The OT victory snapped a six-game winless streak against Carolina, a team which still picked up a much-needed point in the standings as the Hurricanes still hold two games in hand on the Panthers.
Both of Florida’s wins over Carolina this season came in overtime (Jonathan Huberdeau won it in the first meeting) as the Hurricanes went 6-0-2 in the eight-game series.
“We battled all were, tried to find ways to stick with it and win the games,’’ Barkov said.
“We never gave up. Even in those games when we didn’t come up with points, we didn’t give up. Finally, we got the result.’’
MacKenzie Weegar, who scored Florida’s first goal, also assisted on the following three and ended up having a spectacular game if not the best in his burgeoning NHL career.
Weegar not only had four points, but he was also credited with four shots on goal, seven hits, four takeaways and seven blocked shots.
He was most definitely feeling it on Saturday.
“I felt good, just felt really determined,’’ Weegar said. “That’s a top team in our league and they’ve had our number all year.
“I just didn’t want to lose. I didn’t want to lose to that team. I wanted to make a statement.’’
Said Joel Quenneville: “I don’t use the word special very often but I thought Weegs was special tonight, too. He did a lot of good things, whether it was up in the play, making plays, scoring goals, being at the net, defending well … I think he has had a very strong year. The numbers in tonight’s game are very complimentary, reflective of an excellent game. Good for him.”
Down 3-1 after Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov deflected a Brett Pesce shot with his skate, Florida brought all it had at rookie goalie Alex Nedeljkovic and the Hurricanes.
Gustav Forsling, the defenseman Florida claimed when Carolina put him on waivers in training camp, made it 3-2 when he fired a shot from Huberdeau at 4:48 of the third.
Less than two minutes later, the Florida penalty kill was putting tons of pressure on Nedeljkovic and finally put one past when Wennberg jumped on a Weegar rebound down low.
For the final two periods of play, the Panthers looked desperate. The only thing in their was was Nedeljkovic and the Carolina penalty kill (more on that below).
The Panthers even pulled goalie Chris Driedger in the final seconds of a tie game in trying to win the game in regulation and keep Carolina from gleaning anything from this game.
Alas, Barkov got Florida the extra point when he scored 24 seconds into the extra session on the only shot taken in OT.
The Panthers certainly, to echo Weegar’s words, did not look like a team that wanted to lose this game.
”I felt a lot of passion, a lot of emotion on the bench,’’ Quenneville said. “It was very intense. Some of it whether it was the frustration of ‘we’re behind again,’ the determination and perseverance found its way in the right place.“
Florida’s offense did not get much going in the opening period and, for the most part, any good chances were tossed aside by Nedeljkovic.
Save for in the final minute.
The Panthers were able to get the puck down low and Weegar tied things up with 24.9 seconds left before intermission by one-timing a nice feed from Huberdeau past the Carolina goalie.
Dougie Hamilton had given the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 3:25 by firing a long shot that bounced off a pair of Florida defenders — including Patric Hornqvist — before getting past Driedger (16 saves).
Hamilton then made it 2-1 at 1:37 of the second period with Frank Vatrano serving the first of what would end up being two penalties.
BUSY SPECIAL TEAMS
The Panthers’ struggles with the man advantage against Carolina showed its face again in the first period.
Although Florida had a little more offensive zone possession in the first shot at the power play than early Thursday, it created no shots on goal — save for the one Carolina took shorthanded.
The Panthers did look sharp on their one penalty kill attempt in the first, however, as Carolina did not get anything going either.
Sam Bennett gave the Panthers a nice scoring chance off a breakaway that was stopped by Nedeljkovic.
Bennett had another great shorthanded chance stopped in the third just before Wennberg scored.
All told, the Panthers went 0-4 on the power play and end the regular season series 3-35 against the Hurricanes. Florida went 1-13 in this two-game series.
Carolina got its second Hamilton goal of the night on its second power play chance 1:37 into the second period.
The Hurricanes power play was 1-5 on Saturday night and 10-30 against the Panthers this season.
IRON YANS
Keith Yandle is now 50 games away from making the NHL’s Ironman record his own as he took over second place Saturday night.
Yandle, who has not missed a single NHL regular season game since the streak started with the Phoenix Coyotes on March 26, 2009, passed Garry Unger by playing in his 915th consecutive game.
Next up: Doug Jarvis and the 964 consecutive games he played in for the league record.
Yandle played in his 1,000th NHL game earlier this season at Carolina.
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT
1. MacKenzie Weegar, Florida
2. Dougie Hamilton, Carolina
3. Sasha Barkov, Florida
ON DECK: PANTHERS AT PREDATORS
When: Monday, 8
Where: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
Season series: Florida leads 4-1-1
TV: BS-FLA, Fox Sports Go
Radio: WQAM 560-AM