The injury-riddled Florida Panthers blew an early two-goal lead and dropped their fourth consecutive game, falling 5-3 to the rising Buffalo Sabres at Amerant Bank Arena.

Florida got off to a quick start, opening the scoring just 37 seconds in when Niko Mikkola’s slapper struck A.J. Greer in the back and fortoitous rookie Sandis Vilmanis sniped Alex Lyon’s glove for his second NHL goal.

The puck luck continued as the Cats extended their lead at 5:54. Sam Reinhart missed wide, but made a heady play to whack Mattias Samuelsson’s stick allowing Evan Rodrigues to play the puck and put it off Jason Zucker’s skate and over the goal line. Tobias Björnfot was credited with the second assist, his first helper of the season.

After the Panthers failed to convert on some prime chances,. the Sabres pulled one back at the 15:03 mark when Tage Thompson manuvered away from Björnfot and blew a wrister heavier than the Nirvana tune by Sergei Bobrovsky with Alex Tuch providing a helpful screen. The assists on Thompson’s 29th went to Peyton Krebs and Rasmus Dahlin.

Buffalo would score off the rush 3:23 later to tie things up before the break. After taking an outlet pass from Michael Kesselring, Tuch worked past Gustav Forsling and crossed to Dahlin, who sent the biscuit back to the right side for Krebs to backhand past Bobrovsky from in close.

The Sabres would pull ahead 5:35 into middle stanza when Bobrvosky made an ill-advised decision to come out and try to play Owen Power’s clear in right circle. Ryan McLeod, who had just come out of the penalty box, beat him to the puck and cnetered to Benson, who shot the puck through Forsling’s legs to light the lamp.

A slashing call on Jack Quinn put the Cats on a late power play and they would take advantage to forge a 3-3 tie. The goal came when Carter Verhaeghe passed down low to Reinhart and see saw Uvis Balinskis moving in from the right point. Reinhart sent the puck to the defenseman and he cracked a snap-shot home with 1:01 left in the frame.

Unfortunately, Cole Schwindt’s hooking minor early in the third would open the door for the Sabres, who quickly kicked it down to retake the lead. After winning the offensive zone draw, Buffalo worked the puck down the left boards with Jack Quinn backhanding to Josh Doan, who whipped the puck out to Zucker, who solved Bobrvosky with a wrister from the lower left circle at 5:31.

The desperate Panthers would pepper their former keeper with 14 shots in the final frame to no avail and Doan would clinch it, from Krebs and McLeod, with 2:09 remaining.

Another tie game, another third period failure for the depleted Cats, who lost the services of Sam Bennett after the first period. The Panthers have now lost four-straight in Sunrise, were jumped in standings by Ottawa and Toronto; and are now nine points out of a playoff spot, with a game in hand on the Boston Bruins. Hats off to the Sabres, who overcame a slow start and big shot disparity (Lyon finished with 38 saves) to get the win and pass the Bruins.

The Five Hole

Florida’s Latvian duo of Sandis Vilmanis and Uvis Balinskis did their best to try to end the skid. Vilmanis has put up a point in thee of the last four games and Balinkis notched his fourth goal, matching his career-high from last season.

Sam Reinhart’s two-assist night brought his team-leading point total to 54. It was Reinhart’s third multi-point performance in the last six games.

Sergei Bobrovsky allowed five goals on 20 shots, dropping his save percentage for the season down to a putrid .872. His goal against average rose to 3.11. No bueno…

Evan Rodrigues scored his tenth goal of the campaign. That makes five-straight seasons with double-digit goals for eRod.

In addition to his assist, Carter Verhaeghe finished with a game-high seven shots. Verhaeghe also had seven shots against Winnipeg. That 17th goal is proving elusive.

Stat Card