FLA Hockey Round-Up: Cats, Bolts Both Lose On The Road

CHICAGO (AP) — Petr Mrazek made 32 saves and Teuvo Teravainen scored, helping the Chicago Blackhawks top the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Thursday night.

Craig Smith and Nick Foligno also scored as Chicago stopped a three-game slide. The Blackhawks also improved to 3-5-0 at home this season.

Sam Reinhart scored his 15th goal for Florida, which lost for the fourth time in five games. Spencer Knight stopped 17 shots for the Stanley Cup champions.

Teravainen put Chicago in front with a power-play goal 2:46 into the first period. It was his second goal in his last 17 games.

Smith made it 2-0 when he got a pass from Pat Maroon and went to his backhand to convert a breakaway 10:07 into the second. It was his fifth goal of the season.

Reinhart responded 34 seconds later, beating a screened Mrazek for his fourth goal in his last five games.

Florida pressed for the tying goal in the final minutes, but Foligno put it away with an empty-netter with 1:00 left.

Takeaways

Panthers: Came up empty on a couple of prime scoring opportunities.

Blackhawks: Coach Luke Richardson was looking for more fight from his team after it blew a 2-1 lead in the third period of the loss to the Ducks. The Blackhawks responded, especially in the last part of the game.

Key moment

Chicago defenseman Wyatt Kaiser was sent off for delay of game 12:22 into the third, but the Blackhawks killed off the penalty. Florida went 0 for 2 on the power play.

Key stat

Foligno has 10 goals and 14 assists in his career against Florida.

Up next

Florida opens a three-game homestand on Saturday night against Colorado. Chicago visits Philadelphia on Saturday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Zach Werenski’s goal at 1:25 of overtime punctuated a five-point game as the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied from an early three-goal deficit and beat the Tampa Bay Lightning7-6 on Thursday night.

Werenski had tied the game at 4 in the second period and added three assists as the Blue Jackets won their second straight game. Sean Monahan had a goal and three assists and Dmitri Voronkov added a goal and an assist. Kent Johnson scored on a power play and short-handed in his first game back after missing 14 contests due to an injury sustained on Oct. 17. Yegor Chinakhov added a goal and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 24 shots.

Anthony Cirelli, Mitchell Chaffee, Brandon Hagel and Connor Geekie each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay. Brayden Point and Cam Atkinson also scored, and Nikita Kucherov finished with three assists. Jonas Johansson made 36 saves.

Takeaways

Lightning: Tampa Bay appeared to be cruising after scoring three goals in the first, but failed to hold the lead.

Blue Jackets: Columbus returned home after seven of its last eight games on the road and scored four times in the second period.

Key Moment

Tampa Bay jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first period before the second turned into a shootout with Columbus scoring four times and Tampa twice.

Key Stat

Brayden Point, in his second game back from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for four games, scored a power-play goal at 1:51 of the first period—just 23 seconds into a Columbus penalty. Point has three goals in two games and is tied with Nikita Kucherov for the team lead with 11.

Up Next

Both teams are back in action Saturday night. The Lightning host Dallas, while the Blue Jackets host Carolina.

(AP)