Anton Lundell, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett each scored their 11th goal of the season in the Florida Panthers gritty 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Panthers fell behind 13:39 into the first when they yielded a rare power-play goal to the Kings after the table was set by Bennett’s double-minor for high-sticking.
After taking a low to high pass from Alex Laferriere at the left point, Brandt Clarke moved to his right and sent a shot towards the goal that was deflected down off the ice and in by Joel Armia, in a case of one 40 beating another.
Florida would come out flying to start the second period and Seth Jones drew a slashing penalty on Quinton Byfield that led to the equalizer at the 2:14 mark.
Aaron Ekblad played catch with Mackie Samoskevich before snapping off a wrister that was heading wide of the net before it was deftly tipped over the shoulder of Anton Forsberg by Lundell, who was camped out in front of the Los Angeles cage.
Los Gatos would take the lead 4:50 later when a well-executed rush resulted in some puck luck for the red-hot Verhaeghe.
A sweet little entry pass from Verhaeghe to Brad Marchand allowed the Panthers to establish possession in the Kings zone. Marchand pulled up, waited and fed Jeff Petry, who let go of a slapper that was blocked by a diving Corey Perry. Verhaeghe collected the loose puck and tried to find Bennett back-door. His pass was foiled by the stick of Forsberg and then bounced off defenseman Joel Edmundson and over the goal line.
Bennett would pot the eventual game-winner just ten seconds into the final frame when Marchand’s crisp centering pass from the left boards found his blade and ramped up over Forsberg. Props to Verhaeghe, who forced Clarke to turn the puck over to Marchand.
The Kings would cut the deficit down to one at 4:48 when Gustav Forsling’s attempt to clear after Bennett won a defensive zone draw struck Kevin Fiala and found its way past a stunned Daniil Tarasov.
Tarasov shook off the unfortunate goal to finish with ten saves in third and 27 for the game. He made a fine breakaway save on Trevor Moore in the second to keep the Panthers up by a goal.
The Cats would have to kill off a late Lundell penalty, that turned into a 6-on-4 advantage for the La La Land brigade when Forsberg went off for an extra attacker, to get to the finish line.
They did just that to secure the win and get to 38 points. That had them briefly in a playoff spot until the New Jersey Devils eked out a shootout win over Vegas later in the night to knock the Panthers down to ninth. Whatever… Florida is on a 6-1-1 run and making up ground quickly, with the return of Matthew Tkachuk in the near future. Up next is a Friday night date against the Carolina Hurricanes, who top the Eastern Conference chart.
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