FLA Hockey Round-Up: Panthers Roll Preds, Flyers Clip Lightning
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist, Aleksander Barkov had three assists for the second time in less than a week and the Florida Panthers beat the Nashville Predators 6-2 on Thursday night for their sixth straight victory.
Sam Reinhart got his 11th of the season and pushed his goals streak to five games for the Panthers, who got a goal and an assist from Matthew Tkachuk and two assists from Uvis Balinskis. Tomas Nosek also scored for Florida.
Sergei Bobrovsky got career win No. 403 to tie Grant Fuhr for 12th on the career list.
Steven Stamkos and Juuso Parssinen scored for Nashville. It was the 83rd official time, including playoffs, that Stamkos played against the Panthers — the first with him wearing something other than a Tampa Bay sweater.
The Predators (4-9-1) have nine points, the fewest through 14 games in franchise history. They had 10 points through 14 games three previous times, most recently last season.
Takeaways
Predators: Including playoffs, Stamkos has 52 goals against the Panthers. That’s the most by any Florida opponent; Alex Ovechkin has 45 goals against Florida. In regular-season games only against Florida, Ovechkin leads Stamkos 44-42.
Panthers: This is Florida’s fourth regular-season winning streak of at least six games since the start of last season. Before that, the Panthers had 10 such streaks — in their first 29 seasons combined.
Key moment
Reinhart and Tkachuk scored 1:41 apart in the first period, staking Florida to a 2-0 lead just 5:14 into the contest.
Key stat
Florida (10-3-1) has 10 wins through 14 games for the fourth time in club history. It also happened in 1995-96 (10-4-0), 2020-21 (10-2-2) and 2021-22 (10-2-2).
Up next
Predators: Host Utah on Saturday night, before going back on the road for a five-game trip.
Panthers: Host Philadelphia on Saturday night, the second of five straight in Sunrise.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Owen Tippett scored the tying goal in the closing minutes of regulation, then got the clinching shootout goal as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Thursday night.
Travis Konecny also scored in the tiebreaker for the Flyers. Ivan Fedotov stopped 20 shots through overtime, and then denied Gage Gonclaves and Victor Hedman in the shootout to get his first NHL win.
The win was just the fifth in 14 games for the Flyers, who began the night tied with Nashville for the fewest points in the league.
Nikita Kucherov scored his 11th goal of the season for the Lightning, who have lost four in a row. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 30 saves, falling short of becoming the 40th goaltender in NHL history to reach 300 career wins.
Vasilevskiy appeared on the verge of reaching the milestone when Tippett scored from the left circle with 4:16 remaining in regulation.
Takeaways
Flyers: Rookie Matvei Michkov was a healthy scratch after playing in the team’s first 13 games. Coach John Tortorella called the move “just part of the process” in the 19-year-old’s development. Michkov is second on the Flyers with 10 points (four goals, six assists) but only has one assist in his last five games.
Lightning: Back home after losing three of four games on a tough road trip, Vasilevskiy was outstanding before the Flyers finally broke through.
Key moment
The Flyers were rewarded for being persistent. Tippett’s third-period goal came on a shot from the left circle that seemed to catch Vasilevskiy by surprise.
Key stat
The Flyers, who’ve struggled to score, outshot the Lightning 31-24.
Up next
Flyers visit Florida on Saturday, and Lightning host Winnipeg next Thursday.
