Preseason Game 2: Panthers sweep Nashville with 3-1 win

The Florida Panthers pulled off a rare preseason sweep of the Nashville Predators on Sunday as they rolled to a 3-1 win in the second game at FLA Live Arena.

In the earlier game, Frank Vatrano scored twice and Sam Bennett scored 46 seconds into overtime for a 5-4 win.

Coach Joel Quenneville mixed things up in the second game.

In the opener, Quenneville pulled starting goalie Sam Montembeault after two periods — but left Spencer Knight in for the entirety of the nightcap.

Knight, who made a number of nice looking saves in the opening 30 minutes, had 29 saves in the win.

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After a scoreless first period, Anthony Duclair gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead 2:36 into the second.

About five minutes later, Carter Verhaeghe broke toward the net and snared a sharp pass from Sasha Barkov and put it past goalie David Rittich.

Nashville got its lone goal of the night with 2:03 remaining in the second period on a nice backhanded shot from Egor Afanasyev.

The game remained 2-1 until midway through the third period when defenseman Brandon Montour walked in on Rittich and scored off a pass from Verhaeghe.

Florida, as was the case in the opener, kept many of the lines its has been running in training camp together. The Barkov line with Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart, for instance, got plenty of work.

Barkov and Montour both ended the night with three points; Barkov assisted on all three goals while Montour had a hand in goals by Duclair and Verhaeghe.

The Panthers are going to take Monday off from training camp and return to practice Tuesday.

Florida’s next preseason game is Wednesday in Dallas; the Stars visit Sunrise on Friday night.