Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell scored in the shootout as the Florida Panthers defeated the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on Friday night in Sunrise.
Panthers backup goalie Spencer Knight made 29 saves for the win. In the shootout, he stopped Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby — the two players who beat him in regulation.
In regulation, Florida got goals from Matthew Tkachuk and Gustav Forsling.
Tristan Jarry made 31 saves through overtime, but he was able to stop just 1 of 3 in the shootout.
There was no score in the first period as the Panthers killed off a four-minute penalty on Reinhart for high-sticking to the face of Ryan Graves.
Due in part to that extended power play, Pittsburgh had a 29-18 edge on total shot attempts in the first. Florida blocked nine shots (just two for Pittsburgh) to deny the Penguins.
Florida opened the scoring just 36 seconds into the second period as Forsling scored from the point, taking a back-pass from Aleksander Barkov and shooting the puck past Jarry, who was partially screened by Reinhart. Forsling’s shot got past Jarry’s glove.
Pittsburgh tied the score 1-1 with 11:09 expired in the second as the Penguins finally beat Florida’s penalty-kill unit.
Just five seconds after the Panthers were hit with their third high-stick penalty — this time A.J. Greer against Pittsburgh’s Noel Acciari, and also a double-minor — the Penguins got on the board.
Crosby won the faceoff and drifted to the high slot, where he took a no-look pass from Bryan Rust before slamming in a one-timer off the left post. It was Crosby’s 15th point in his past 10 games.
Florida took a 2-1 lead with 11:12 left in the third period, capitalizing on a cross-check penalty against Pittsburgh’s Pierre-Olivier Joseph. The goal came on a shot by Carter Verhaeghe that was whacked at by Tkachuk, who fought off Crosby to make the play. There were just nine seconds left on the power play when Tkachuk got his deflection for his 14th goal of the season.
Pittsburgh nearly tied the score with 7:28 left as Evgeni Malkin missed an open net, banging the puck off the right post.
Pittsburgh, however, tied the score following a roughing call on Florida’s Sam Bennett with 2:01 left in the third. With one minute left, the Penguins pulled Jarry for an extra attacker, and — with a six-on-four advantage — Rakell was able to score from the slot with just 40 seconds left in regulation. Michael Bunting’s touch pass set up the goal.
–Field Level Media
