Florida Panthers overcome key absences to beat Wild, extend point streak to 5 games
The Florida Panthers began Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild without their top two goaltenders. Before long, their top defenseman was out of the game (and two of their other top defensemen each missed an extended stretch as well). And, for good measure, they played most of the final half of the game without one of their top centers.
Despite becoming quickly shorthanded, the Panthers held on to beat the Wild 5-3 at FLA Live Arena to extend their point streak to five games. Florida is now 23-20-5 on the season. Minnesota falls to 25-16-4.
We’ll get to the game specifics in a moment.
But first, the injury rundown.
Defenseman Aaron Ekblad left the game after playing just three shifts with an upper-body injury. Second-line center Sam Bennett did not play the final 27 minutes due to an upper-body injury. And defenseman Gustav Forsling was out the final 11:04 of the second period before returning for the third.
(Defenseman Brandon Montour was also unavailable for the majority of the third period after being assessed a misconduct penalty.)
Panthers coach Paul Maurice, however, said he doesn’t believe any of the injuries are serious and added there’s a possibility that both Ekblad and Bennett could play Monday at the New York Rangers.
And that was on top of the Panthers turning to third-string goaltender Alex Lyon in net with both Sergei Bobrovsky (lower-body injury) and Spencer Knight (conditioning stint with AHL Charlotte) unavailable.
Still, Florida found a way to win for the seventh time in 10 games.
Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, Carter Verhaeghe, Forsling and Sam Reinhart scored goals for Florida, which has now scored at least four goals in six of its past seven games.
And Lyon, one game after spelling Bobrovsky two minutes into Florida’s win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, was excellent in net again. The 30-year-old stopped 29 of 32 shots that came in way, including 24 of 25 at even strength.
The first two goals he gave up came on Minnesota power plays. The Wild’s Matt Boldy scored 8:56 into the second period to cut Florida’s lead to 2-1 before Verhaeghe scored a power play goal with 27.1 seconds left in the period. Joel Eriksson Ek scored 4:37 into the third to make it a 3-2 game before Forsling’s wrist shot from the left circle got past Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson to give Florida a two-goal cushion again with 12:09 left in regulation.
Jared Spurgeon got Minnesota within one for a third time with 1:26 left to play when the Wild pulled Gustavsson for an extra skater but Reinhart iced the game with an empty-net goal with 38.8 seconds left.
Lundell opened scoring with his seventh goal of the season when his shot from up close trickled past Gustavsson with 12.9 seconds left in the first period. Luostarinen made it 2-0 1:40 into the second period when he grabbed a turnover in the Minnesota zone, charged toward the net and flicked the puck in with a backhanded shot.
This story was originally published January 21, 2023 at 8:43 PM.
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