Blues Battle, Matthew Tkachuk Wins It Late for Florida Panthers

When Sam Bennett and Jake Neighbours dropped the gloves on the opening faceoff, it should have been a hint the Florida Panthers would be in for a battle against the Blues in St. Louis on Thursday night.

And they were. Goalie Joel Hofer made sure of that.

It took Sam Reinhart throwing up two shots — with Matthew Tkachuk credited with his second goal of the night by knocking in that second one with 11.8 seconds remaining to give the Panthers a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Blues.

St. Louis took the early lead at 3:31, but the Panthers dominated the rest of the first and took a 2-1 lead off goals from Mackie Samoskevich and Tkachuk.

Florida, after being outshot 3-0 early, ended the first with a 16-10 advantage.

The Blues turned things around in the second, tying the score on a power-play goal of their own, and it was a 2-2 game going into the third.

The Panthers outshot the Blues 8-3 in the third — and held St. Louis without a shot for almost the entire final 13 minutes.

Spencer Knight made 20 saves for his second straight win.

NOTES: PANTHERS @ BLUES

• Samoskevich left the game early in the second after what looked like an awkward hit in the corner. He did not return with what the team calls an upper-body injury. Samoskevich had missed the previous three games with an illness.
• With an assist on Samoskevich’s first-period goal, Tkachuk extended his point streak to five games. With his goals, he has one in all five of those games as well.
• Tkachuk is now the third player in franchise history to start with three straight 20-goal seasons. The others: Reinhart (four) and Ray Whitney (three).
• Thursday was the fourth time this season that the Panthers faced Blues coach Jim Montgomery. He was 0-2 against Florida in the first week of the season as coach of the Bruins and went 0-3-1 this season.
• The game-winner was the fourth-latest regulation winner in franchise history; Vincent Trocheck scored with 5 seconds left on Feb. 20, 2017.
• The Blues have lost five straight at home, and six of seven overall.

HOW THEY SCORED

• Blues 1, Panthers 0 (3:31 1st): Zach Bolduc follows up a rebound by posting up Anton Lundell and backhanding a shot from 15 feet out.
• Panthers 1, Blues 1 (7:09 1st): Mackie Samoskevich snaps his goal drought as he deflects a Sam Bennett shot from down low.
• Panthers 2, Blues 1 (16:54 1st PP): The top power play was rolling with Sasha Barkov keeping the puck in the zone. Tkachuk got it to Aaron Ekblad — then deflected Ekblad’s point shot home.
• Blues 2, Panthers 2 (5:10 2nd PP): Oskar Sundqvist deflects a shot in front of Spencer Knight to tie it up.
• Panthers 3, Blues 2 (19:48 3rd): Sam Reinhart appeared to get his 32rd goal of the season off his own rebound — but the goal is later credited to Tkachuk.

FHN’S 3 STARS OF THE GAME

• 1. Matthew Tkachuk, Florida
• 2. Joel Hofer, St. Louis
• 3. Sam Reinhart, Florida

ON DECK: GAME No. 57

OTTAWA SENATORS at FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• Streaming: Panthers+; ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Last Season: Panthers won 4-0
• This Season (Senators Lead 1-0) — At Ottawa: Senators 3, Panthers 1 (Oct 10); Ap. 5. At Florida: Saturday.
• All-time Regular Season Series: Ottawa leads 58-48-5, 3 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Feb. 22 vs. Seattle Kraken, 6 p.m.