George Richards, FHN Publisher
The way the Florida Panthers played on Wednesday in their season-saving victory over the Islanders in Game 3 will need to continue for this series to continue.
The Panthers made only a handful of mistakes in what, ultimately, was a clean 3-2 victory in which they played (successfully) with the lead for 19-plus minutes of the third period.
Although the Panthers short-circuited two power play chances as Brett Connolly and Sasha Barkov negated them with penalties of their own, Florida’s special team units were solid Wednesday and, like Tuesday going the other way, turned the tide.
The Islanders had three power play chances Wednesday, a sharp decline from the seven they enjoyed in Tuesday’s 4-2 Game 2 victory.
While with the man advantage, the Islanders did not send a single shot that got through to Sergei Bobrovsky.
Florida’s entire game could be capsulated in a couple of shifts taken by Erik Haula.
In the second period, Haula gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead by (where else?) scoring on the power play.
Midway through the period, Aaron Ekblad took to the box on a hooking call with the Panthers still leading.
Haula, now on the kill, blocked a heavy shot from Ryan Pulock and paid a painful toll.
Although Haula remained on the ice and in the game, he winced as he limped to the bench.
There, now free from the penalty box, Ekblad leapt on his back with a bear hug of appreciation.
The Panthers got optimal effort on what could have been their final day of the season.
It is because of that — as well as some timely goals and another terrific start from Bobrovsky — that is was not.
“So much respect for that,” Ekblad said of Haula. “It was awesome to see. Obviously I took the penalty so for him to do that, I just gave him a hug and told him ‘I have a block for you coming up in this series.’
“It was a gutsy play by him and I love him for it. Sacrificing your body at this time of year … it’s special to see.”
The Islanders now lead the best-of-five series 2-1 with Game 4 on Friday at noon.
“The guys worked hard, they worked for each other,” coach Joel Quenneville said.
“We played a simple game with a defensive mindset right off the bat. We looked to play a checking game like they like to do and we scored some timely goals as well.’’
Quenneville said he had to make “some tough decisions” when it came to the lineup, deciding to sit Mike Matheson, Frank Vatrano and Colton Sceviour in favor of Josh Brown, Lucas Wallmark and Dryden Hunt.
Aleksi Saarela and Brady Keeper, who played in Game 2, were also out on Wednesday.
While Quenneville was asked about whether his substitutions were based on time management with games on consecutive days, he pointed out that it was result and performance based.
“We make decisions based on results and performance,’’ Quenenville said. “We made some changes because we weren’t happy with our results. We had similar results during the regular season and decided to just do it.
“Sometimes the hard decisions are what we’re looking at, but bringing in fresh guys was important. We know everyone’s conditioning is not what it was in the middle of the season.”
Matheson had a rough start to this return to play in Toronto, starting with a miserable outing in the 5-0 exhibition loss to the Lightning.
Matheson did not play great, but was not horrible either, in the first two Islanders games although his mistakes, when he made them and where, stood out.
As far as Vatrano and Sceviour go, Quenneville apparently just wanted to see what someone else would do.
Vatrano started summer training camp on the top line with Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau and started the Tampa game there as well.
But as he dropped down the lines against the Islanders, so did his ice time. Vatrano played 10:59 in Game 1, 8:55 on Tuesday.
Quenneville said he hoped when those guys were called upon again (and we assume he was talking to Matheson and Vatrano) they’ll come up big for the Panthers.
The last time Matheson was benched by Quenneville, remember, he answered with a goal and two assists the next night out.
“Not an easy decision for us to make,” Quenneville said. “Sometimes you make a tough decision and you get a real good response.
“We think these guys can help us every single day and it’s an opportunity to get back where you’re pushing yourself when your not playing. …
“Both (Matheson and Vatrano) were disappointed extremely not to go today, but we believe both guys will come back and help us.”
Hunt and Brown played in their first postseason games and played well especially in the defensive zone.
“They played a big impact on this game no doubt about it,’’ Ekblad said. “I loved seeing them come in, prepared and ready to go. It was awesome to see.”
Those who did indeed come up big for Quenneville and the Panthers included Haula, Mike Hoffman (whose slapshot led to the first goal before he scored the second) and Brian Boyle.
Boyle, who was a late addition to the Panthers in October, played almost 12 minutes, scored the game-winning goal and won a key face off in the final minute to keep the Islanders hunkered down on their end of the ice down a goal.
“We just wanted to play a simpler game, a harder game,” Boyle said of his team’s effort Wednesday. “We tried to keep pressing, kept our foot on the gas so I thought we did a pretty good job of that. We played aggressive. We had two leads in the last game that we lost. …
“It was rewarding for us because we’re putting the work in and a few mistakes has cost us so far. We’re not where we want to be in the series, but we can only control today. In the third period, we could only control how we started the period and I thought we did a good job.’’
GAME BREAKDOWN
One negative which could come out of Wednesday’s game was Jonathan Huberdeau not finishing.
Huberdeau played his last shift with 5:02 remaining and did not return.
Quenneville said he “was battling through some things there” and would see how he “presents himself” on Thursday.
“We’re hopeful he’ll be fine,” Quenneville said.
— The Panthers will likely have some sort of off day Thursday before returning to try and continue their season Friday.
— The goal by Haula was his first since joining the Panthers in February as part of the four-player return for Vincent Trocheck.
— Boyle, who missed the final six weeks of the regular season, got his first goal since Jan. 16 against the Los Angeles Kings.
“Boyler brings a lot of the intangibles we always talk about and today he did a lot of good things, not just offensively,’’ Quenneville said.
“He won some big faceoffs, broke up some plays in our end. You see his size, the presence he brings … he had a lot of important shifts. We loves what he brings.’’
— J-G Pageau got his second goal of the series for the Islanders with Anthony Beauvillier getting his second assist to tie it at 1.
— Brock Nelson’s first goal of the series came with 1:27 left and came among some odd circumstances.
First of all, the shot he threw up clipped Ekblad’s skate before slipping past Bobrovsky.
The Islanders had six skaters on the ice with goalie Semyon Varlamov on the bench but the Panthers only had four.
On a previous sequence, MacKenzie Weegar lost his helmet and had to race to the bench.
He was out of the play when the Islanders scored to make it a one-goal game meaning the Panthers were down two skaters As Anton Stralman was late getting into the fray.
— Wednesday was the first time the Panthers scored more than two goals in what was their seventh game against the Islanders this season.
“There is obviously a way we want to play with a lead and we were trying to shut it down in our zone,” Ekblad said. “It’s a pretty simple job when you’re playing with a lead and I thought we did a great job of it as a D-core and as a team.”
Florida had not beaten New York since the 2018-19 season and had dropped its previous six.
When Boyle scored in the third, Florida took a two-goal lead on the Islanders for the first time this season.
— The win for the Panthers was their first in a postseason elimination game since Game 7 of the 1996 Eastern Conference finals in Pittsburgh. Yeah, 24 years.
It was also Florida’s first postseason win since Game 4 of the 2016 east quarterfinals against the Islanders.
— Dadonov’s assist on the Hoffman goal was his first NHL postseason point.