Latter game saint Anton Lundell lit the lamp with 52 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Florida Panthers to a 4-3 win over the Utah Mammoth, stunning the crowd at Delta Center.
As the clock headed towards overtime, Lundell won an offensive zone draw back to Aaron Ekblad, who pushed the puck forward to Sam Reinhart. Reinhart sent a pass from the right boards down low to Eetu Luostarinen, who tipped it across the goal mouth. Lundell was able to bat the puck out of the air and just inside the post to give Florida its third straight win.
The Mammoth would strike first, opening the scoring at 11:23 after John Marino collected the rebound of an A.J. Greer shot that caught the far post and sprang the dangerous Dylan Guenther for a breakaway. Guenther would make it look easy, using his quick release to snap a wrister by an unready Sergei Bobrovsky.
The red-hot Carter Verhaeghe would even it up with 43 ticks left in the first frame. After Sam Bennett cranked a shot wide, Ekblad’s perfect cross-ice feed found Verhaeghe on the back door and he shoveled the pass home to extend his goal streak to four games.
An equally en fuego Bennett would give the Cats the lead 1:40 into the second. Niko Mikkola head-manned to Evan Rodrigues and he threaded a pass to Bennett as he crossed the Utah blue line. Bennett skated into open space blew a shot by Vejmelka from the right circle to finish off the well-executed rush.
Bennett added another 1:44 later to put Florida up a pair, pestering former Panther Nate Schmidt into a costly turnover. After gathering Schmidt’s gaffe, Verhaeghe backhanded to the breaking Bennett and he drove the puck past Vejmelka for his ninth of the season.
Guenther would get free for another breakaway goal 13 seconds later to halve the deficit. This time he solved Bobrovsky with a backhander along the ice after Marino sent a hard pass to Lawson Crouse at center and he caught Guenther in stride, streaking past Mikkola.
Jack McBain would outwork Ekblad in front to pot the rebound of Sean Durzi’s slapper from the blue line to tie the tilt with 4:43 left in the middle stanza. Ian Cole would pick up the secondary assist.
The Panthers had a series of glorious chances in front early in the third, but Luostarinen and Mackie Samoskevich couldn’t force the puck through Vejmelka.
Undeterred, they went on to dominate the rest of the way (outshooting Utah 19-4 over the final twenty minutes) and got the victory thanks to Lundell’s late-game heroics. The Cats have won three in a row for the first time since taking the first three games of the regular season and now have points in four-straight. With Colorado, Dallas and Tampa Bay left on the road trip, leaving Salt Lake City with two points was key. Mission accomplished.
The Five Hole
Sam Bennett’s three-point night made him the fifth Panther to hit the 20-point mark this season. Bennett has points in seven of Florida’s last nine games. He’s produced five goals and 13 points over that span.
Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 27 stops, including a highlight reel glover on Clayton Keller’s one-timer midway through the second. That was one of 11 high-danger saves for Bobrovsky.
After putting up just ten points over the first 21 games of the season, Carter Verhaeghe has racked up seven goals and 13 points during his personal seven-game point streak.
First Star Anton Lundell’s goal was his first game-winner of the season. Lundell was credited with three shots, three blocks and a hit in 19:58 of ice time.
Sam Reinhart’s helper on Lundell’s GWG gave him points in 12 of the last 14 games. Reinhart is second on the team in scoring with 28 points in 29 games.
Stat Card
