Panthers Triumph 4-2 Over Golden Knights in Power-Play Duel

SUNRISE, Fla. – Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart scored power-play goals 1:59 into the third period and the Florida Panthers began the Christmas break with a 4-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in a rematch of last season on Saturday. season and # 039; Stanley Cup Finals.

The Panthers, who lost to the Knights in June when Vegas lifted the Cup for the first time, responded with a disappointing 4-1 loss to St. Louis here Thursday night. Louis Blues. It followed a 1-3 trip and an otherwise promising season for the champions of the Eastern Conference.

But Vegas brought out the best in the Panthers. Sam Bennett and Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida, and Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov and Brandon Montour each had two assists. Sergei Bobrovski stopped 23 shots in the win. andquot;They are a really good team and they clearly beat us last year,andquot; said Verhaeghe. andquot;It was a little more emotional game, but we wanted to get back on track.

And it was nice to win.andquot; Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofejev scored for Vegas. The shorthanded Golden Knights suffered their third straight season-worst loss and are just 10-9-4 after an 11-0-1 start to their title defense. andquot;It’s probably a good time to rest,andquot; Stone said.

andquot;It wasn’t our best trip by any means. We didn’t play enough 60 minutes of hockey in those three games, but we’ve been through adversity before and we have to come out of the break rested and refreshed.andquot; Jiri Patera, filling in for the injured Adin Hill and Logan Thompson, stopped 38 shots for Vegas. The Panthers were flying, shooting 15 of the game and the first 16 shots.

When counting the shots that went into the net or were blocked in the first 15 minutes of the game, Florida had 29 games and the first 30 attempts to put the puck in goal. And there were clearly memories of what happened last June, especially the blockbuster Vegasand#039; Keegan Kolesar, who left Tkachuk with a broken sternum. Kolesar struggled with Florida and Ryan Lomberg midway through the first set on Saturday; The fight lasted exactly one shot, with Lomberg landing the first and only shot before Kolesar was knocked to the ice.

andquot;Every time we play them now, I think it’s definitely a high-intensity game,andquot; said Verhaeghe. Patera stonewalled Florida again and again despite pucks coming, and then Stone opened the scoring early in the second period. Bennett tied the game for Florida and Forsling scored to give the Panthers the lead before Dorofeev gave Vegas a big boost by tying the game with 22.3 seconds left in the second period.

He latched onto a pass from Ben Hutton that hit the stick of Panthers defenseman Dmitri Kulikov and then deflected the puck toward the net. andquot;it had a bit of a final feel to it,andquot; Bennett said. andquot;It was intense, a lot of hitting, a lot of physical play. I thought it was a really solid 60 minute game from the band.andquot; Verhaegheand#039; a high-stakes goal just 17 seconds into the power play gave Florida the lead for good, and Reinhart provided the insurance bill about 2 minutes later — assisted by Tkachuk on a perfect play by Patera.