George Richards, FHN Publisher
The power play — scoring on it and defending against it — was the key to victory in the Carolina Hurricanes’ first five wins against the Panthers this season.
History, at least when it comes to special teams, sometimes repeats itself.
It certainly did Thursday night.
Carolina’s penalty kill, for the most part, completely dumbfounded the Panthers Thursday as Florida looked inept at times while skating with the man advantage.
The Panthers went 1-for-9 on the power play Thursday night (only scoring while with a two-man advantage) all while Carolina scored not only on one of its power plays but on two of Florida’s as well.
Key to Carolina’s 4-2 win Thursday?
Look no further than the Panthers lack of success on the power play.
Sasha Barkov scoring with 7:58 left with the Panthers holding the 5-on-3 advantage at least made things appear a little better.
But not much.
”I knew you would be asking the same questions as the (first) seven other games,” Barkov said. “Same type of games, all of them. Same finish. It’s a tight game and they end up winning. They find a way to win those games.”
The night definitely had a playoff atmosphere to it despite the smaller crowd due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The crowd in the building were into it and why not? Both teams came into the night tied for first in the NHL’s Central Division.
Carolina has two games in hand on the Panthers so for Florida to have any chance to win the division, it needed two wins in this series or, at least, three points.
The Hurricanes lead Florida by two points and Tampa Bay by three.
Early on it looked like the Panthers were ready for this as the two teams jostled and showed some fire in a tightly officiated first.
The Panthers got a fortuitous bounce in taking the initial lead as Florida took three shots at Nedeljkovic but only got one past when he was on his back.
Nedeljkovic gamely threw his glove in the air but Barkov got enough air under his shot to avoid it altogether.
At 6:22 of the first, Florida led 1-0.
As far as special teams went, Florida was pretty good on the penalty kill.
Florida was absolutely dreadful on the power play.
Although Carolina scored on its third power play chance to make it 2-1 in the second, they did not get many good looks at all and one reason Nino Niederreiter scored on that one was with Bobrovsky blocked and partially down.
The power play though? ‘
Woof.
”We lost the momentum,’’ Joel Quenneville said. “Even when we had the lead, the power play was ineffective. Their penalty killers have been in that situation with us all year long whether we don’t sustain momentum or don’t generate much.”
Florida came into the game just 2-for-22 on the power play against the Hurricanes, a major reason why Carolina had so much early success against Florida.
Thursday may have been their worst showing yet.
Florida’s first power play attempt was as feeble as the second; Carolina took more shots shorthanded than the Panthers did with the man advantage.
As we saw in the first six meetings, Carolina’s speed and attacking style overwhelmed the Panthers up top.
The only time the Panthers really got any kind of possession time on the power play was when they dumped and chased.
The most embarrassing moment for the power play came late in the third when Sebastian Aho and Martin Necas broke on a shorthanded 2-on-none.
The two basically skipped up the ice, playfully passing the puck between one other. Necas had the puck and got Bobrovsky to commit; he then slid it over to Aho for the easy goal.
”Shorthanded goals are generally deflating,” Quenneville said. “They change the completion of a game. You can have some bad power plays and give up momentum, but a shorty is a complete package. I thought we came out with a good start to the third period and had plenty of time to get the equalizer. Plenty of opporunties.
Aho later scored into the empty net on Florida’s ninth power play chance.
In four power play chances in the opening two periods, Florida had a total of two shots on goal but really only one scoring chance.
”It’s frustrating when you’re on the power play and you don’t even get it in the zone,” Barkov said. “They did a good job there. We have to keep our cool, play as hard as we can … have to battle for 60 minutes, no shifts off. We have to work.”
Florida then got fIve more power play chances in the third as Carolina spent most of the period shorthanded.
And yet.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a terrific chance in the third which would have tied the score at 3.
”We had the best chance in the world,” Quenneville said. “It was one of those … and that didn’t go in. … You dream about that chance to tie it. … Tough night on the power play but they’re good at it. We have a game on Saturday to correct it.”
The Panthers ended up going 1-for-9 on the power play Thursday and are 3-for-31 (9.7 percent) against Carolina this season.
Carolina is 9-for-25 (36 percent) on the power play against the Panthers with Aho netting three shorthanded goals.
Huge difference in games this close.
Just about every one of these first seven games has been a one goal game until Carolina started padding things with the empty net as Aho did Thursday.
Carolina is now 6-0-1 against Florida this season with wins in the past six.
So, down 1-0 after the first, the Canes didn’t seem to flinch at trailing the Panthers.
Just 14 seconds into the second, Jordan Staal was behind the cage, slipped a shot through the blue paint right to Jordan Martinook. His shot hit Radko Gudas’ leg and beat Bobrovsky to tie the score.
Later in the period with Ryan Lomberg in the box for slashing, Nino Niederreiter jumped on a rebound as Bobrovsky was going down and found a home for the puck to give the Hurricanes their first lead of the night.
Bobrovsky ended up making 26 saves as he didn’t have much of a chance to stop any of Carolina’s goals.
Nedeljkovic beat the Panthers for a third time this season, the rookie stopping 30 shots to go 3-0-1 against Florida so far.
The Panthers took longer than usual in getting to their media responsibilities; Barkov said there was no former player meeting.
”We just said a couple things,” Barkov said. “We have to have to ready for the next game. We’re at a good spot in the standings but we know Carolina has been beating us this season. We have to find a way to win these games, play the right way the whole 60 minutes.”
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT
1. Alex Nedeljkovic, Carolina
2. Sasha Barkov, Florida
3. Sebastian Aho, Carolina
ON DECK: HURRICANES AT PANTHERS
When: Saturday, 7
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise
Tickets: AVAILABLE HERE
Season series: Carolina leads 5-1
TV: BS-FLA, Fox Sports Go
Radio: WQAM 560-AM