A strong start — and Sergei Bobrovsky’s ‘best’ game yet — help Panthers get back on track
The first two periods the Florida Panthers played Tuesday at Nationwide Arena were exactly the balm Joel Quenneville was looking for two days after one of his team’s worst performances of the year. The Panthers peppered the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first period, added on with a power-play goal in the second and recaptured the offensive flow they’ve ridden throughout most of the first half of the season.
Those first 40 minutes — and the rapidly improving play of Sergei Bobrovsky — were enough to propel Florida to a 4-2 win in Columbus. The final 20 left the coach thinking the Panthers were fortunate to get out with a win at all.
“We had a tremendous start to the game. I thought we did a lot of great things. I thought we had a good second period,” Quenneville said, “and then we made some of the most unbelievable turnovers, giveaways, lack of playing the right way that I’ve ever seen, so that was tough to watch the last part of the game.
“I’ll take the win.”
Florida (16-5-1) put 29 shots on goal and scored a pair of power-play goals in the first two periods to take a 3-1 lead, and then had to hang on through a final Blue Jackets flurry in the final period to escape with a victory in the opener of a two-game series in Ohio. The Panthers took nearly nine minutes to record their first shot of the third period, didn’t manage another until the final six minutes and finished the third with only four shots on goal.
Meanwhile, Bobrovsky saw 15 shots in the period, saved 14 and Florida needed to kill of a 6-on-4 in the last three minutes while nursing a 3-2 lead.
“He was unreal tonight,” forward Juho Lammikko said.
Bobrovsky finished with 38 saves and stopped all 12 shots he faced on special teams to help the Panthers keep pace with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes in the Central Division. Florida briefly moved into a tie for first place with the victory before the Lightning and Hurricanes rallied to win, and keep Florida in third. The Panthers remain two points behind Tampa Bay and one behind Carolina, and are now ahead of the fourth-place Chicago Blackhawks.
Florida needed every bit of Bobrovsky effort to match a gem in the opposite net from Joonas Korpisalo.
The Columbus goaltender finished with 29 shots and a .906 save percentage, but the Panthers beat him on a pair of power plays in the first periods to build an insurmountable lead.
On Sunday, Florida put together one of its worst offensive efforts of the season, managing just 23 shots and going 0 for 5 on the power play in a rare two-goal loss to the Hurricanes. It was the Panthers’ second game in as many days and Quenneville hoped it was just a fatigued team running out of steam at the end of the weekend. Florida took Monday off and came out rejuvenated to start the first period.
The Panthers piled up four shots in the opening five minutes, nearly scored on a power play, then went up 1-0 in just 4:59 when Lammikko scored off an assist by defenseman MacKenzie Weegar.
They stretched the lead 2-0 early in the second on a power play when right wing Patric Hornqvist deflected in a slap shot by defenseman Aaron Ekblad and went up 3-1 on another power play goal by right wing Owen Tippett. Korpisalo was the only reason the lead wasn’t bigger, as he made a handful of jaw-dropping saves — including a reaching-back stick save to deny defenseman Gusav Forsling against an open net — to keep the Blue Jackets (10-12-5) within striking distance into the third period.
“I think,” Bobrovsky said today, “we put on a show today.”
The goaltender conceded once in the third period, then rescued his floundering offense in the waning moments.
A Florida penalty with 3:01 left gave Columbus one final chance to tie the game. When the Blue Jackets pulled their goalie with 2:30 left, they created a 6-on-4 advantage.
Defenseman Radko Gudas blocked a shot by Blue Jackets star Patrick Laine. Forward Noel Acciari blocked one by Columbus star Nick Werenski. Bobrovsky didn’t face a single shot on the power play, then made two lunging saves to block one-time opportunities by Laine to preserve the victory.
“I like the way he’s progressing,” Quenneville said, “and that was his best.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 9:33 PM.
