Florida Panthers Win Nail Biter Against The Sharks
With lots of goals being scored last night and a couple of blown leads, the Florida Panthers fought hard through adversity and grinded hard for the well deserved two points.
The Cats got off to a great start by opening the scoring in the first four minutes of play. A nice pass from
led to a
goal. About thirty seconds after opening the scoring, the Sharks immediately tied the game with a
snipe. It seemed that the Cats didn’t buckle under any pressure as
took a nice outlet pass from
and buried it home to take back the lead. The Panthers certainly weren’t done just yet. About three minutes after Bjugstad’s goal,
extended the lead to 3-1. See the clip of Barkov’s beautiful one timer down below.
The game took an unexpected turn as Joel Ward cut the lead down to one. The Cats would head to the locker room with a 3-2 lead. Not long into the second period, Vlasic scored from the point to tie the game at three goals a piece. The game seemed to slip away from the Panthers hands as they lost their two goal lead. The second period ended with the score being 3-3.
After a tough second period, the Panthers came out strong to start the third. The Cats were attacking on all cylinders and were bound to be rewarded with a goal. With about two minutes into the third, Bjugstad grabbed his second goal of the night and regained the lead for the Cats. Ten minutes after that, Barkov received a nice pass from Jagr and slotted home his second goal of the night. The goal extended the Panthers lead to 5-3 and
tallied his 1900th career NHL point.
It seemed that with a two goal lead late in the third period that the Cats would escape this one. Well you’re wrong. With three in a half minutes left in the game, Joe Pavelski tips home a pass from Schlemko to cut the lead down to one. It doesn’t stop their. The Panthers were thirty-seven and a half seconds away from winning the game in regulation until Pavelski tied the game at five goals a piece. It was certainly a heartbreaker for the Cats and Luongo also went down on that play with an injury. Surely enough things were definitely not going well for the Panthers. The momentum completely swung the other way and it seemed that the Sharks were favored to grab the extra point in overtime.
After blowing another two goal lead in the game, the Panthers didn’t quit and kept fighting till the end. Overtime didn’t start well as a turnover was given in the defensive end. Thankfully enough,
was their to save the day and keep the Cats alive in overtime. A minute and a half after that play, Huberdeau and
went down on a two on one which led to a scoring chance. During that play, both Huberdeau and Matheson held the zone quite well, which led to Huberdeau’s goal down below.
After winning a crucial game last night, the Panthers are back at it on Friday night against the Anahiem Ducks. Expect the Ducks to come out strong after losing to the Panthers not to long ago. Another two points are on the line as the Panthers look to extend their win streak to three games. With Luongo’s absence late in last nights game, expect James Reimer to start in tomorrows night game.