Despite 18 days between starts, Panthers’ backup goalie shows no rust in win over Carolina
Chris Driedger showed no rust as he manned the Florida Panthers’ net on Saturday night.
Forget the fact that he had gone 18 days without playing as Sergei Bobrovsky started seven consecutive games to close out the Panthers’ homestand.
Driedger stopped 42 of 44 shots against him to lead the Panthers to a 4-2 road win over the Carolina Hurricanes. It’s Florida’s third consecutive victory dating back to Monday.
“Over the course of the season you get some goalie wins,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “That was one of them.”
Evgenii Dadonov, Brian Boyle, Jonathan Huberdeau and Noel Acciari scored goals for the Panthers (18-12-5), who are back in the third spot of the Atlantic Division as they prepare to play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday.
But Driedger’s calm presence in net during his first career road start made the difference.
In addition to the 44 shots on goal, the Hurricanes (22-12-2) had another 23 shot attempts blocked by the Panthers, including a game-high four by Acciari.
He had a shutout through two periods before Carolina’s Nino Niederreiter scored on a close-up wrist shot with 10:44 left in regulation. Lucas Wallmark added a goal of his own with 7:01 left to play.
“They had a lot of shots through traffic, but our guys did a great job of blocking shots,” Driedger told reporters postgame. “We just kind of built our game from there. By the time they turned it on in the third, we had a sizeable lead and their push just wasn’t enough.”
Driedger is now 2-1-0 in his three starts with the Panthers this season. The 25-year-old posted a 27-save shutout in his first career NHL start to lead the Panthers to a 3-0 win over the Nashville Predators on Nov. 30. He gave up three goals on 25 shots one game later in a loss to the Minnesota Wild.
And now, 42 stops on Saturday.
“I know my game,” Driedger said. “When I play well and I don’t think about outside factors, things tend to go better than if I do think about those things. I just try to play my game, keep things simple, slow my game down and try to give the guys the best chance to win.”
The offense gave him room to work, too. They had a 3-0 lead less than 30 seconds into the third period before Carolina could squeeze in its first goal of the game. Acciari added an insurance goal between the two Hurricanes scores.
The Panthers have now outscored opponents 17-7 over their past three games. And they have done so despite recording just 86 shots on goal.
Put another way: Florida is scoring a goal about every five shots over its past three wins.
“The ability and the talent we have on this team offensively has never been in question,” Boyle said.
.JPG)