Florida Panthers drop fifth straight, crash to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1

The Florida Panthers were heading into this game on a four game losing streak. Were the Cats able to dish out a win in North Carolina?

The Panthers got off to a pretty rough start and were lucky to have Roberto Luongo stand strong in between the pipes. The Hurricanes were pouring pressure down deep in Panthers territory, forcing them to give up the puck in prime real-estate.

Thanks to Roberto Luongo, the Cats managed to escape the first period scoreless and would have the opportunity to regroup in the second. If the first period was to ever repeat itself, surely the Canes would have blown the Panthers out of the water. Thankfully, they didn’t.

With the second period underway, the Panthers started to find their feet again and had some good pressure deep in Carolina’s zone. Some of those chances could have converted to goals, but unfortunately they didn’t. With eight minutes left in the second, Jamie McGinn’s brother (Brock McGinn) recorded his second goal of the season and gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead:

Two minutes after the McGinn goal and the Panthers quickly found themselves on the board.

Jonathan Huberdeau

quickly found

Trocheck

, who then undressed

Scott Darling

and slotted home the game’s tying goal:

The second period ended differently than the first, with a goal given on both sides. The Panthers had quite the period as they began to pepper more shots at Darling. Question was: Could they continue this level of play?

The answer to that question would be no. The third period was almost identical to the first, in which the Canes purely dominated the Panthers. It only took Carolina 10 minutes to grab the lead right back. Forward Derek Ryan batted home a loose puck off an initial shot from Justin Williams. The Cats were going to have to answer back and quick!

Throughout the remainder of the third, both the Cats and Canes each exchanged high quality scoring chances at both ends. No matter how close the Panthers came to scoring, the puck just wouldn’t go in. Scott Darling would limit the Panthers to one goal and one goal only, as Justin Williams would add an empty netter and would seal Carolina’s fifth victory of the year.

Next: Florida Panthers: What’s holding them back from succeeding?

Overall, the Panthers faced pure domination from the Hurricane’s tonight. With the way Luongo played tonight, the Cats are lucky it was only a one goal game (minus the empty netter). The Florida Panthers are back in action on Friday, November 10th against the Buffalo Sabres @7:00pm.