Takeaways as special teams and All-Stars lead Panthers to shootout win over Penguins
A stellar effort on both ends on special teams and a stellar performance from both of the their All-Stars played a critical role in the Florida Panthers’ 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in a shootout on Friday at PPG Paints Arena.
Forward Sam Reinhart, an All-Star this season for the first time in his NHL career, had the game-deciding score in the shootout for the Panthers (30-14-4) and scored a power-play goal in the second period off a feed from Matthew Tkachuk.
Meanwhile, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 35 consecutive shots on goal after the first one from Pittsburgh (21-17-7) got past him to improve to 23-10-2 on the season.
Evan Rodrigues also scored on the power play in the first period to give Florida their eighth game this season with multiple power-play goals. On the other end of special teams, Florida went 7 for 8 on the penalty kill, with Bobrovsky stopping 17 of 18 shots he faced while Florida was a man down.
Pittsburgh’s goals came on their first and final shots of regulation. They opened scoring less than two minutes into regulation on a Jake Guentzel power-play goal less than two minutes into regulation on a deflection. Evgeni Malkin tied the game with 41.5 seconds left while Pittsburgh had the empty net to force overtime.
Both teams came up empty in the five-minute overtime period to force the shootout.
Florida is now 1-1 in shootouts this season and 4-4 overall when a game goes past regulation.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Panthers defend their captain
A scary moment happened midway through the second period when Panthers captain and star center Aleksander Barkov fell to the ice after a hit away from the puck by Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang.
Barkov, who was playing in his second game back after missing three games with an unspecified lower-body injury, stayed down for a few minutes before going to the dressing room to get checked out by the medical staff.
While Barkov did return to the game later in the period, his teammates made sure Letang knew they were not pleased with the hit. Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk and even Anton Lundell took their turns at Letang during the second period — with Bennett and Lundell going to the penalty box for their actions.
Barkov scored the first of Florida’s two shootout goals before Reinhart sealed the game with the Panthers’ second. Anton Lundell missed for Florida in the opening round of the shootout.
Guentzel scored in the shootout for Pittsburgh, while Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby missed.
More Sam Reinhart records
Reinhart’s second-period goal was his 19th power-play goal of the season.
That ties the Panthers’ single-season franchise record initially set by Scott Mellanby in the 1995-96 season and then matched by Pavel Bure in the 2000-01 season.
Reinhart still has 34 more games this season to add to his mark.
In addition, the goal was No. 36 overall for Reinhart and extended his point streak to a career-high 12 games — five shy of matching the Panthers record of 17 held by Mike Hoffman.
One more game before the All-Star Break
The Panthers cap their schedule ahead of the All-Star Break on Saturday when they face the New York Islanders.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
This will be the second of three meetings between the Panthers and Islanders this season. Florida lost the first matchup 4-3 on Dec. 2 in Sunrise. The final meeting will be March 28 in Sunrise.
This story was originally published January 26, 2024 at 10:05 PM.
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