George Richards, FHN Publisher
A night after Florida suffered a OT loss to the Nashville Predators coach Joel Quenneville called a “punch in the gut,” the Panthers bounced right back.
Led by the red-hot combo of Sasha Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe as well as another strong performance in net from Chris Driedger, the Panthers won their sixth game in eight tries this season as they beat the Predators 2-1 in front of 3,977 at BB&T Center.
”Points are huge and it was a mental battle (Thursday) and we kind of blew that one a little bit,’’ said Verhaeghe, who now has six goals and nine points in Florida’s first eight games.
“We had the chance to close it out last night and didn’t do it. So it’s nice to see the same opportunity and doing it here.”
Florida was all over Nashville from the start only goalie Pekka Rinne was strong in net as he was late Thursday night.
It took a Barkov shot off a sweet pass from Verhaghe on Florida’s 22nd attempt to break the ice. Later in the second period, Verhaeghe scored off a Barkov delivery — and Dreidger did the rest.
Dreidger (3-0-1) made 24 saves as Florida ran a lopsided shot chart throughout the game.
”He was rock solid again tonight,” Quenneville said postgame as he hinted Dreidger will start Sunday afternoon against Detroit.
“He takes up a lot of net, is poised and rebounds seem to stick to him.”
Florida is now 6-0-2 through its first eight and remain the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss.
The franchise’s best start came in 1996-97 when those Panthers opened 8-0 with four ties in their first 12.
Detroit visits Sunrise for a two-game set with a two-game series against Tampa Bay closing out the six-game homestand.
Hepo gone, Juulsen plays
Quenneville changed up things a little bit Friday night, benching Brett Connolly for the third time in four games with rookie Owen Tippett replacing him.
Aleksi Heponiemi, who played the past three games, found himself surprisingly sent to the AHL squad in Syracuse freeing up a fourth-line spot for Vinnie Hinostroza.
“The plan was to send him to Syracuse at one point, we want him to keep playing,”Quenneville said.
“We got him in a game and he he got a couple extra games out of it. It’s a good story. We want him playing. We feel he has the right instincts, just needs to get stronger in some areas.”
Thursday’s game: Nashville Predators 6, Florida Panthers 5 (OT)
Friday also marked the Florida debut of defenseman Noah Juulsen who had not played in an NHL game since Dec. 17, 2018.
Juulsen, who apparently has been battling complications stemming from being hit in the face with a puck in 2018, was claimed off waivers in January as the Canadiens were trying to sneak him to the minors for some playing time.
A first-round pick in 2015 (26th overall) by the Canadiens, Juulsen had worked his way onto a second-line pairing with Montreal before his injury.
The Panthers think they may have gotten themselves a real player for nothing more than a waiver claim.
We’ll see.
“When you haven’t played in a long time, there’s obviously some rust that you’ve got to work through,” Quenneville said of Juulsen on Thursday.
“We look forward to getting him in and then I think everyone will be a lot more comfortable with what to expect moving forward.”
First period highlights
Unlike the opener on Thursday, no one scored in the first 90-plus seconds although the Panthers had plenty of chances.
Nashville, which was outshot 20-4 in the first period, actually went into the intermission holding a 1-0 lead despite the shot and chance disparity — and their 31st-ranked penalty kill having to face Florida twice.
The Preds got the initial lead at 4:04 when Colton Sissons broke free and drove in on Driedger.
The shot hit Dreidger and appeared to bounce off of Sissons’ skate and through.
It was Dreidger’s first goal allowed to Nashville as he shut out the Preds in his first NHL start back in 2019.
Driedger said he had not thought about it until goalie coach Robb Tallas reminded him.
“He came up to me and said ‘this is your team, eh?’ I guess it is,” Dreidger said. “It was fun kind of reliving that but I didn’t dwell on it very much. That goal came early, snapped any kind of streak I had or whatever.
“I thought in the first, there weren’t a lot of shots and I was kind of just standing there. I settled down in the second.”
Florida had a whole bunch of chances against Rinne — and as was the case in the third period and overtime Thursday — he stopped them all.
The Panthers’ power play, which scored twice against Juuse Saros before he was pulled at the second intermission, came into the game ranked fourth in the league in scoring percentage.
In the opening period Friday, they were 0-2.
Florida ended the period with 15 more shot attempts than the Preds (25-10) and had a distinct possession advantage as well — especially on the power play when Florida’s top unit rarely was off the ice.
Barkov and Keith Yandle combined for seven of Florida’s first period shots, almost all of which came on the power play.
Second period highlights
The Panthers continued to pour it on in the offensive zone and, for the most part, Rinne was up to the task.
On Florida’s 22nd shot of the night, it was Barkov scoring as he sliced to the net and took a nice pass from Verhaeghe and went bar-down to tie it at 1.
About 10 minutes later, Barkov returned the favor, playing a nice game of ‘you’re it!’ as the two traded passes through the slot with Verhaeghe hammering home a shot to make it 2-1.
At that point, Florida was outshooting the Preds 28-10.
The game got a little chippy late in the second when Jonathan Huberdeau took a slight bit of offense to a hit from Sessions and the two ended up rolling on the ice together.
Radko Gudas and Patric Hornqvist also got involved in minor skirmishes around the Huberdeau-Sessions scrum but nothing too serious.
At the end of the period, Florida was outshooting Nashville 29-13 with a healthy 18 shot attempt advantage (49-31).
Third period highlights
Florida kept coming at Rinne but he kept knocking shots back.
Nashville’s first big scoring chance of the period came midway through when Roman Josi fired a shot from just inside the blue line that went off the post.
Florida looked to add to its lead with just under seven minutes left when Noel Acciari — a 20-goal scorer last season — was stopped on the doorstep on Florida’s 36th shot on goal of the night.
”I thought we had a lot more composure in the third, had more offensive zone time and sat back a little more (Thursday),” Quenneville said.
“I thought we responded in the right way. I thought we played a hard game throughout.”
Up Next: Detroit Red Wings at Florida Panthers
When: Sunday, 3 p.m.
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise
TV/Radio: FSF/560-AM