Panthers close first half of schedule with win over NHL-leading Avalanche
The Florida Panthers closed out the first half of their schedule with a win against the NHL’s top team.
Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad scored goals, Daniil Tarasov stopped 27 of 28 shots he faced and the Panthers beat the red-hot Colorado Avalanche 2-1 at Amerant Bank Arena on Sunday.
Colorado (31-3-7) saw its 10-game win streak snapped and lost in regulation for the first time since Dec. 4. Florida is 22-16-3 at the midway point of its schedule.
“That was a good, 2-1 filthy game,” Ekblad said.
It’s arguably the Panthers’ biggest win of the season, coming off a disappointing 5-1 loss on Friday to the New York Rangers in their Winter Classic game at Miami’s loanDepot park and coming into the game down yet another key player. Defenseman Seth Jones, who leads the Panthers in average time on ice (23:29) and paces Florida’s blueliners in goals (six), assists (18) and points (24), is sidelined with an upper-body injury sustained in the first period of the Winter Classic.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Jones will see a doctor Monday, after which the team will have a better idea of his timeline for return. Florida is already playing without captain Aleksander Barkov, star winger Matthew Tkachuk, fourth-line forwards Tomas Nosek and Jonah Gadjovich, and veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.
So with that in mind, the Panthers put together an all-around solid performance against Colorado, which was playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
Bennett opened scoring 6:27 into the first period with a strong individual effort. The center forced an Avalanche defensive-zone turnover near the boards, drove to the net and whacked the puck at Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood, with the second attempt getting into the net. It was Bennett’s 14th goal of the season.
“It’s big,” Bennett said of scoring first. “Obviously that’s a tough game for them on a back to back, so we used that to our advantage. I thought we had a pretty good jump, put some good pressure on them early, and didn’t give them a lot of space.”
The Avalanche tied the game at 1-1 when Artturi Lehkonen tipped in a Josh Manson point shot past Tarasov with 8:09 left in the first.
That’s all Florida would allow the Avalanche to score, with the defense locking up in all situations — Colorado was 0 for 4 on the power play in addition to only getting one goal at five-on-five.
Ekblad then gave Florida the lead for good when his blast from the point beat Wedgewood, who was screened in front of the net by Sam Reinhart, with 1:48 left in the second period.
Tarasov and the defense did the rest from there. The backup goalie stopped the final 20 shots he faced, including one up close from Nathan MacKinnon with three seconds left to preserve the lead.
“It was kind of like a bouncy puck,” Tarasov said. “He just trying to go five-hole, and I just closed on the rebound. It was really good.”
Added Ekblad: “That save on MacKinnon there was special.”
And Maurice: “It was really good — not that it closed out, but that save’s important too, so he gets to feel really an important part of what he did. He was really good tonight. That was a big, big game for us.”
Florida will be on the road for each of its next six games.
The full road slate: Tuesday at Toronto (7:30 p.m., TNT), Thursday at Montreal (7 p.m., Scripps), Saturday at Ottawa (7 p.m., Scripps, NHL Network), Jan. 12 at Buffalo (7 p.m., Scripps), Jan. 16 at Carolina (7 p.m., Scripps, NHL Network) and Jan. 17 at Washington (7 p.m., Scripps).
This story was originally published January 4, 2026 at 7:42 PM.
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