SUNRISE (Florida
Sports Wire) – The
Florida Panthers defeated Vancouver Saturday 4-3. The Panthers will play the
Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center at 1 p.m. (ET) on Monday.
“It has been
good for a long time. It’s just now, it is fast. And so winning faceoffs, so we
are not breaking the puck out nearly as much, and then moving the puck, so they
keep control. That’s all,” noted Florida head coach Paul Maurice.
Eleven different
Panthers registered a point. Florida has won four of their past six games
(4-2-0), including three of their past four (3-1-0) at FLA Live Arena.
Aaron Ekblad
registered two points (1-1-2) for his fourth multi-point game of the season and
48th of his career, the third-most by a Panthers defenseman in franchise
history. Ekblad (157 home points) is nine home points away from surpassing
Robert Svehla (165) for the most by a defenseman in franchise history.
“[He made]
Huge saves. We follow Bob every night out of the tunnel. The way he prepares is
second-to-none. He’s a great role model for this team and he plays big every
night,” Ekblad said about netminder Sergei Bobrovsky's game.
Florida’s Ryan
Lomberg scored his fifth goal of the season. Eric Staal scored his 448th NHL
goal, matching Rick Middleton for 64th on the NHL all-time goals list.
“As a group,
we’ve been playing well all year. A lot of the time it hasn’t gone our way, but
now it’s time to go—we’ve got to get on the gas. It doesn’t matter we’ve just
got to start getting points here,” Lomberg said.
Sam Bennett
led Florida with six shots on goal.
Bobrovsky
stopped 35 of 38 Vancouver shots against (.921 save percentage) for his fourth
win in his past six appearances (4-2-0).
“Big win for
us. It’s a big two points. It is not an easy game to play coming back from the
west. I thought the guys did a great job. They stepped up when it was needed.
It’s a big two points for us,” added Bobrovsky.
Panthers Notes: Sam Reinhart notched an assist to
extend his point streak to three games (1-2-3). The West Vancouver, B.C. native
also extended his personal point streak against the Canucks to nine games since
Jan. 25, 2018, his longest point streak against one opponent in his career. Matthew
Tkachuk posted an assist to extend his point streak to six games (5-5-10), the
longest point streak by a Panthers skater this season. He leads the Panthers in
goals (12), assists (16) and points (28) on home ice this season, and his plus-13
rating at FLA Live Arena is tied with Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour for
the club lead. Anton Lundell skated in his 100th NHL game, the seventh skater
drafted in 2020 to reach the mark.
(Mike
Bonts is hockey editor for the Florida Sports Wire and SportsDay)