Florida Panthers have no answer for Vegas Golden Knights in ‘embarrassing’ home loss
The Florida Panthers, 7-1-1 over their past nine games, made their return to the BB&T Center after a three-week stint that included six games on the road split by the All-Star Break.
The hope: Continue picking up points despite not having captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov in the lineup for a third consecutive game.
The Vegas Golden Knights had other plans.
Mark Stone scored two goals and had five points, including an assist on Max Pacioretty’s go-ahead goal, as the Panthers lost 7-2 on Thursday night. It’s the second time this year the Panthers have given up seven goals this year, with the other coming on Oct. 28 in a road loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
The Panthers (29-18-6) never led, rebounding from one-goal deficits in both the first and second period before Pacioretty wrist shot in front of net went past Sergei Bobrovsky with 7:42 left in the second period. Nate Schmidt added an insurance goal 17 seconds into the third period that started a four-goal flurry for Vegas.
“It was a 2-2 game halfway through the second period, and we managed to give up five more goals,” forward Vincent Trocheck said. “It’s embarrassing. We should all be embarrassed. That’s not the way you want play if you’re trying to make the playoffs.”
Bobrovsky, who was 4-1-1 record with a .924 save percentage (16 goals allowed on 210 shots) over Florida’s last six games, gave up six goals on 29 shots before being pulled for Sam Montembeault with 11:07 left in Thursday’s loss. Monteambeault gave up one goal on 10 shots faced.
Mike Hoffman and Trocheck scored goals for the Panthers, both of which tied the game after Stone gave the Golden Knights (28-21-7) a lead.
Hoffman’s first-period power-play goal, scored after taking a cross-ice feed from Trocheck, was his 20th of the season. Trocheck, centering the top line on Thursday in Barkov’s absence, tallied his eighth goal of the season with 8:08 left in the second period when he took a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau, raced down the ice, went behind the goal and poked the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury.
Pacioretty gave scored his go-ahead goal 26 seconds later, Schmidt made it 4-2 on the first shift of the third period and the Panthers fell flat from there.
“It went downhill quickly after that,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “Not fun to watch.”
The Panthers were on the penalty kill five times, gave up a short-handed goal and were out-shot 39-25. They had three total shots on goal in the third period and one in the final 12 minutes.
Late in the first, trailing 1-0, Brett Connolly had a wrist shot saved by Fleury on a three-on-two rush. Hoffman’s rebound shot seconds later was blocked as Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb laid out in front of the net.
Connolly also missed a penalty shot after being tripped on a breakaway midway through the second period.
This and that
▪ In addition to Barkov, the Panthers were without center Brian Boyle for a third consecutive game as he deals with an upper-body injury. Boyle was not on the ice during the team’s morning skate and did not have an injury designation during the first two games in which he was scratched. Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, who returned to the lineup on Tuesday against Columbus after missing 15 games with an upper-body injury, sat Thursday while dealing with an illness.
▪ Hoffman is the fifth player to score at least 20 goals in each of his first two seasons with the Panthers. The others: Ray Whitney (1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00), Mark Parrish (1998-99, 1999-00), Kristian Huselius (2001-02, 2002-03) and Michael Frolik (2008-09, 2009-10). Hoffman led Florida with 36 goals in 2018-19.
Next up
The Panthers host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday to cap a short, two-game homestand.
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 9:36 PM.
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