Red-hot ‘VerBarkov’ lead Florida Panthers over Nashville in Round 2

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.