‘We needed to get this one’: Panthers make statement, rout league-best Jets to snap skid

The Florida Panthers were playing perhaps their worst hockey of this still-young season. The Winnipeg Jets were — still are, maybe — the best team in the league. In the two powerhouses’ first meeting of the year, the Panthers still managed to make a statement: The defending champions are still the team to beat the NHL.

Florida brought an emphatic end to a rare losing streak Saturday, blowing out the Jets, 5-0, in Sunrise. The Panthers led for all but 14:59, built a four-goal lead before the end of the second period and posted their first shutout of the season to take down Winnipeg in the opener of a two-game home-and-home series with the Jets.

“We knew we needed to get this one,” star center Aleksander Barkov said. “We needed to play really well in this game and everyone decided that.”

After dropping back-to-back games to the Eastern Conference-leading Devils earlier in the week, Florida (12-5-1) relished the chance to try to bounce back with a major test. The Jets (15-3-0) got off to the fastest start in NHL history this season by becoming the first team ever to win 15 of its first 16 games, and Winnipeg’s scorching first month gave the Panthers a chance to pick up an early signature win in a marquee matchup in front of 19,157 at Amerant Bank Arena.

Florida played its part and made sure the Jets couldn’t, and did so by getting contributions from all across the roster.

Star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was the anchor for the Panthers with 27 saves for his first shutout of the season, but Florida got goals from five different players and points from 10. The Panthers’ first goal came from rookie fourth-line forward Mackie Samoskevich, who wasn’t even in the lineup for their last game Thursday, and their second came from third-pairing defenseman Nate Schmidt, playing against his former team. Samoskevich’s goal, only the third of his career, put Florida ahead 1-0 with 5:01 left in the first period and Schmidt’s pushed the lead to 2-0 just 2:07 into the second.

By the end of the second period, some more familiar faces got involved for the Panthers — winger Evan Rodrigues scored off assists from Barkov and defenseman Aaron Ekblad to make the lead 3-0 with 7:39 left in the period, then Barkov scored a short-handed goal off assists by All-Star forward Sam Reinhart and star defenseman Gustav Forsling just 2:15 later — and Florida was up 4-0, on its way to a shockingly smooth win against Winnipeg.

“Two games in a row is enough for us,” Rodrigues said. “We were ready from puck drop in this one.”

Barkov finished with three points, also assisting on a goal by Dmitry Kulikov in the third period, and Reinhart notched three assists.

The Jets had only given up five goals in a game one other time all season and had yet to be shut out. Florida did both to them in the same game.

Winnipeg entered the weekend sitting atop the league in both goals scored and goals against. On defense, the Jets were giving up just 2.24 goals per game and All-Star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck was stopping more than 93 percent of the shots he faced. On offense, Winnipeg was averaging 4.35 goals per game and had only been shut out through even two periods once.

The Panthers punctured the Jets on both sides of the ice. On offense, Florida fired 31 shots at Hellebuyck and beat the star goalie five times. On defense, the Panthers limited Winnipeg to just 27 shots—and only 17 in the first two periods when the game was still competitive — with Bobrovsky stopping all of them.

“We were good in almost all parts,” said coach Paul Maurice, who coached Jets for more than eight years and got his first ever win against the franchise since its move from Atlanta.

Now, the Panthers head up to Canada on Tuesday for their only trip to Winnipeg of the season, trying to make an even more emphatic statement in Manitoba.

By the midpoint of the third period, Florida fans were serenading the Jets with chants of, “Overrated!” At the end of a rocky week, the Panthers made Winnipeg look like it.

“You learn that you have a recipe and you have to stick to it,” Schmidt said. “If you’re going to play the way we play, it’s hard. It’s every night. We ask ourselves to get fired up and play, and sometimes it’s a little bit easier when you’re playing the No. 1 team in the league.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2024 at 10:45 PM.