Florida Panthers: Sergei Bobrovsky’s 33-Save Effort Leads to 4-1 Win over Blue Jackets

Struggling to create ground on the teams below them, the Florida Panthers were faced with a must-win game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Florida Panthers got off to the perfect start as forward Evgenii Dadonov opened the scoring eighteen seconds in. Keith Yandle threw a shot from the point, which Dadonov redirected in to give the Panthers the early lead.

Florida received the first power play of the game shortly after but were unable to capitalize on the opportunity as the Blue Jackets defended strongly.

Throughout the remainder of the opening frame, the Jackets really limited the Panthers’ scoring chances while blocking any shots that came their way. The Cats were finding it rather difficult to create anything meaningful, unable to find time and space in the high-danger slots.

After twenty minutes of play, the Panthers would head to the dressing room with the lead, limited to just three shots on goal, yet finding themselves a goal up.

In the second, the Panthers returned to the man advantage after Alexandre Texier held Aleksander Barkov in the corner. The Cats created a few chances but were unable to get a second past the stubborn Elvis Merzlikins.

Minutes later, after fighting so hard and extensively to find that second-goal cushion, the Panthers finally found it through Josh Brown. Barkov fed Brown with a beautiful cross-crease pass, which Brown got on the end of it to double Florida’s lead.

From there, the Panthers continued to buzz and poured pressure down deep in Columbus’ territory. They managed to draw another call through MacKenzie Weegar, but like the previous two opportunities, the Cats failed to capitalize on their third power play.

Before the second period concluded, Frank Vatrano got called for a slash on Seth Jones, sending the Jackets to the man advantage with 35.8 seconds remaining in the period.

After forty minutes of play, the Panthers were heading to the locker room with a two-goal lead. Columbus, on the other hand, had 1:25 of their power play carry over to start the third.

To start the final frame, the Panthers killed off the remainder of Columbus’ power play with ease and found their fourth of the night shortly after.

On their fourth attempt, they finally cashed in through Brett Connolly – who redirected Yandle’s point shot to extend Florida’s lead by three.

Later on, the Jackets broke Bobrovsky’s shutout after Vladislav Gavrikov ripped a shot from the point to cut the Panthers’ lead down to two (3-1).

The Cats found themselves in trouble after Aaron Ekblad committed a holding penalty, sending the Blue Jackets to the power play. Fortunately enough, the Panthers’ PK unit killed it off comfortably, preserving their 3-1 lead in the final moments of the game.

To seal the deal, Mike Hoffman added an empty netter to close out the game by a score of 4-1. Bobrovsky would go on to make 33 saves against his former team, propelling the Panthers back into second place in the Atlantic.

Overall, it was a good game by the Cats – who desperately needed two points (in regulation as well) to get back on track. With other teams closely trailing them like the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Tampa Bay Lightning, the Panthers could not afford to lose, considering that all three of those teams recently won.

The Panthers are back in action tomorrow against the San Jose Sharks @ 5 P.M., looking to take care of business by gaining another two points, preferably in regulation.