Panthers rally to beat Hurricanes in overtime and take over first place in Central
The first-place Florida Panthers? That has a nice ring to it.
It became reality Wednesday.
The Panthers rallied from an early two-goal deficit to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in overtime at Raleigh’s PNC Arena and take sole possession at the top of the Central Division one-fourth of the way through this 56-game season.
The Panthers are now 10-2-2 and have 22 points through 14 games. The Chicago Blackhawks also have 22 points after their 2-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night, but the Panthers have the tiebreaker because they have played four fewer games (14 for Florida, 18 for Chicago). The Tampa Bay Lightning, at 10-3-1 (21 points), and Hurricanes, at 10-3-1 (21 points), are tied for third and round out the top half of the eight-team division.
“Really good start to the season,” said Panthers coach Joel Quenneville, whose team also won two of three against the Lightning in the days before facing the Hurricanes. “A lot of good things have happened here across the board.”
Jonathan Huberdeau scored the game-winning goal with 2:31 left in the five-minute overtime period.
Fitting, considering Huberdeau and goaltender Chris Driedger played big roles in the Panthers’ comeback.
Huberdeau cut Florida’s deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal midway through the second period, sending a snipe from the left circle past Alex Nedeljkovic. Just over three minutes into the third period, shortly after the Panthers killed off a penalty, Huberdeau sent a no-look, spin-o-rama pass from the right circle across the ice to Alex Wennberg, who tapped the puck into the net to make it 2-2.
“You just have to be at the right moment,” Huberdeau said of the pass. “I saw Wenny coming in and I’ve done the littel spin-o-rama before and it just hit his stick, so it was fortunate.”
His coach had much higher praise.
“The pass was the highlight for me,” Quenneville said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a play like that.”
Florida’s Juho Lammikko and Carolina’s Vincent Trocheck exchanged goals less than a minute and a half apart to keep things even at the end of regulation before Huberdeau scored on a breakaway in overtime.
Wednesday was Huberdeau’s third game this season with at least three points and he leads the team with 20 points overall through 14 games.
“It was a big response by us,” Huberdeau said. “After the first period, we just came back in the room, we didn’t panic and we came back to our structure. ... Got some good goals.”
Driedger, meanwhile, fought off shooting flurry after shooting flurry from an up-tempo, aggressive Hurricanes offense in the opening period, 16 chances in all during those first 20 minutes. For the most part, he held his own, keeping Carolina’s shots out of the net before the Hurricanes struck twice in a 22-second span late in the frame.
Jordan Staal wrist shot in the slot between MacKenzie Weegar and Aaron Ekblad gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 edge with 1:32 left in the first period. On the ensuing shift, Sebastian Aho deflected Brett Pesce’s shot from the point into the net to make it 2-0.
Trocheck’s power-play goal was Dreidger’s only other blemish as he stopped 32 of 35 shots on goal — including a big stop on Nino Niederreiter in the paint with three minutes left — to improve to 5-1-1 on the season.
Familiar face
The Panthers had a familiar face on the opposite side of the ice on Wednesday.
For the first time since they traded him to the Hurricanes almost a year ago, the Panthers faced off against veteran center Trocheck.
Trocheck spent the first six-and-a-half seasons of his NHL career with the Panthers, who selected him 64th overall in the 2011 NHL Draft, and recorded 284 points (112 goals, 172 assists) during his Florida tenure.
“I’ve watched the highlights and seen him in the uniform,” Huberdeau said after practice Tuesday. “He’s a good friend, but it’s part of the business. Guys get traded. It was tough when he left that day, but now you get used to it. We’re still friends and we’ll be friends for a long time.”
Trocheck has been a force for the Hurricanes, entering Wednesday tied for second on the Carolina roster with 13 points (six goals, seven assists).
“I have definitely been looking forward to playing them,” Trocheck told Carolina reporters on Tuesday. “It’s going to be a little weird, but once you get on the ice it’s just hockey.’’
Forsling returns
Defenseman Gustav Forsling returned to the lineup on Wednesday after spending the last nine games on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. He primarily played with Anton Stralman, who regularly has played with the final defenseman Quenneville rotates in and out of the lineup (Markus Nutivaara is the other player who generally fits that category).
Ekblad and Weegar remain the team’s top pairing, while Radko Gudas and Keith Yandle are mainly grouped together. The lone exception comes when Noah Juulsen is in the lineup. At that point, Juulsen pairs with Yandle and Gudas works with Stralman.
Next up
The Panthers close this four-game, three-city road trip with back-to-back games against the Red Wings on Friday (7 p.m. start) and Saturday (5 p.m. start). The Panthers are 3-1-0 against the Red Wings through four games this season.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 7:44 PM.
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