Florida Panthers Couldn’t Hang Onto a Lead Against Carolina

In a game where they needed to win in regulation to have any chance of sniffing the playoffs, the Florida Panthers collapsed in the third period.

By no means did the Florida Panthers get off to a good start. they went a goal down early in the first and conceded early in the second.

But they did manage to turn things around in a matter of six minutes, with goals coming from Evgeni Dadonov, Aleksander Barkov, and Jonathan Huberdeau. The trio gave the Cats their first and only lead of the night.

However, it wouldn’t be your beloved Panthers without a collapse of some sort. Like the first two periods, the Canes added an early goal in the third, courtesy of Justin Faulk.

Then, the Hurricanes regained their lead through Justin Williams, who originally took a puck off his face for his first goal of the hockey game.

Thankfully this time, Williams didn’t have to endure any pain on his goal, simply cruising his way in and roofing a shot over James Reimer.

This comeback led by Faulk and Williams really did occur in the blink of an eye. Three minutes didn’t even go by in the third and the Hurricanes had already taken the game back in their own hands.

The primary reason for this? Well, that’s easy: unnecessary penalties taken by the Florida Panthers.

I mean, earlier in the game, you could start with Vincent Trocheck and Mark Pysyk who were hot-headed (Tro) and simply lazy (Pysyk).

On top of all that, you had Frank Vatrano who took an ill-advised penalty for unsportsmanlike. More specifically, the refs sent him to the box for mouthing off – something that’s completely controllable.

While the Panthers were shooting themselves in the foot all throughout the third with their penalties, the refs, on the other hand, weren’t any better and missed a handful of calls that should’ve and could’ve gone Florida’s way.

Now, in no way, shape, or form am I blaming the officials for tonight’s loss, but they weren’t exactly fair or concise with a few of their calls.

Justin Williams’ third-period goal happened to end up as the game-winner, leading the visitors to a 4-3 victory in regulation.

What does this mean for the Panthers exactly? Well, if there was any chance of them making a run for the postseason, this game (right here) had to be won in regulation.

But now that the Cats are running out of games to lean on, their focus will be on Monday’s trade deadline where they can ship off some pieces to stock up on draft picks and clear more cap space.

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