The Giroux effect: In 2nd game for Panthers, forward makes huge plays to cap comeback win
When the Florida Panthers traded a first-round pick for Claude Giroux last Saturday, they envisioned the All-Star forward helping them fill some of the few gaps they had on their offense.
High on the list was his ability to win faceoffs.
With the Panthers on the verge of a frustrating loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, the 34-year-old Canadian’s faceoff prowess set up a game-tying goal in the final three minutes, ultimately forcing overtime and giving Florida a chance to win 4-3 in a shootout.
“He’s really good a them,” star center Aleksander Barkov said. “You can talk about different plays when he’s taking faceoffs because there is a good chance that he’s winning it and obviously we have a lot of skilled players to make the plays there.”
On the receiving end of Giroux’s biggest faceoff win yet as a Panther was Barkov. With Sergei Bobrovsky on the bench and an extra attacker on the ice for Florida, the Panthers (44-14-6) got an offensive-zone faceoff and sent Giroux out to the right circle. The puck went down and Giroux was first to it, batting it back toward the blue line. All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau slid a pass over to Barkov and the captain fired a slap shot from the point to tie the game at 3-3 with 2:16 remaining.
With Giroux fourth assist in two games with Florida and Huberdeau’s league-leading 68th of the season, Barkov’s goal forced overtime and he later won the game in a shootout with a backhand goal.
Bobrovsky sealed the win by stuffing star left wing Brady Tkachuk on the Senators’ final faceoff chance in Ottawa. After giving up three goals on the first 10 shots he faced, Bobrovsky stopped nine in a row to end regulation, three more in overtime and all three he saw in the shootout.
Florida, which was down 3-0 in just 26:47, stormed back for its 17th come-from-behind win of the season.
“We know that we’re going to come back,” Barkov said. “Nobody even had one thought that we were going to lose this game. We just needed one goal to get us going.”
While it hasn’t quite been its usual dominant self in its two games since it retooled the lineup with a trio of trade-deadline moves, Florida has still yet to lose since the deadline and is flashing plenty of positive signs.
On Thursday, the Panthers squeaked out a one-goal win against the last-place Montreal Canadiens with new defensemen Robert Hagg and Ben Chiarot each notching assists, and Giroux adding two. On Saturday, Giroux tallied two more assists — one on the first goal of the comeback and one on the last — and provided some of the biggest plays down the stretch.
Giroux won 65 percent of the faceoffs he took, including five in a row in the last 2:20. His first teed up Barkov’s game tying goal. His other four — all in the last minute — set up four shots on goals as Florida furiously tried to win in regulation.
Although they couldn’t quite beat Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg, the Panthers never let Ottawa get a good game-winning chance and they secured one point by getting to overtime. With two points for the shootout win, Florida hung onto sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference and is now seven points clear of everyone else in the Atlantic Division.
Still, the Panthers’ start was unusual. They dominated possession like they usually do and outshot Ottawa, 19-8, in the first period with a 32-21 edge in total shot attempts, yet they trailed 2-0 because the Senators (23-36-6) actually finished the first period with a 16-14 advantage in scoring chances and an 8-6 advantage in high-danger chances. With the three newcomers playing in only their second game and star defenseman Aaron Ekblad missing his second straight with a right knee injury, Florida simply didn’t generate the sort of high-quality rush chances it’s used to and gave up too many on the other end.
By the middle of the second period, the game flipped. The Panthers started their comeback bid on the power play. In his first game back in Ottawa since he left for Florida as a free agent back in 2019, winger Anthony Duclair received a warm reception from 17,201 at the Canadian Tire Centre, then rocketed a one-timer past Forsberg and delivered a giant fist pump as he cut Ottawa’s lead to 3-1 with a power-play goal off an assist from Giroux.
Another comeback was on.
“It’s a little bit of time to get the flow and the rhythm together,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said, “but a night like tonight is a good step and it maybe accelerated the process a little bit.
Up next
The Panthers will wrap up their two-part, seven-game road trip Sunday at 7 p.m. when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
It will be the first meeting this season between Florida and the Maple Leafs, who are two of the top four teams in the Atlantic Division. The Panthers will face Toronto twice more next month back in Sunrise.
It’s a potential first-round playoff preview, too: The Maple Leafs (40-19-5) are currently in Wild Card position and Florida would face one of the two Wild Card teams in the opening round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs if it finishes atop the Atlantic.
This story was originally published March 26, 2022 at 10:23 PM.
