In Sunrise, the Colorado Avalanche continued their disappointing road trip in a 4-0 shut out loss to the Panthers on Saturday night.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves in the win.
“You try to stay in the moment, make one save at a time,’’ Bobrovsky said. ‘’You never know because that team has great players. But I am really happy. The guys did a great job in front of me. They did not give much. It was a pleasure to play, great performance for us.”
The Panthers improved to 33-15-4.
Florida scored twice in the opening stanza to take control of the game.
Carter Verhaeghe hit for a goal midway through the opening stanza for a 1-0 lead.
Sam Reinhart pushed the advantage to 2-0 with his 22nd power play strike of the campaign at 16:56 of the first.
The Avs dropped to 32-17-4 off their fourth straight loss.
“I felt like they were all over us in every aspect of the game,” the Avs; Cale Makar said. “We have to stick to our path. They kind of took over and we were chasing it.”
Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon left the ice midway through the third period after a fall into the backboards, face first.
“I have not talked to the trainers yet,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said afterward. “You saw the player hit his chin on the ice. He got cut open a little bit, went in for some work, but I do not have an update.”
The Panthers padded the lead when Eetu Luostarinen scored at at 17:52 of the middle frame to make it 3-0 headed to the third.
“I thought we did a good job in the second and third periods where we did not come off the puck,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We did not sit on [the lead] but we did not force it. We had some good zone time in the second and that can wear a team down.”
Aleksander Barkov hit for his first go0al in 19 games just ahead of the midway point of the third period for the 4-0 final count on the scoreboard.
“Oh man, that changes everything right there,” Maurice said. “They are the highest-scoring team in the NHL, and if they come out feeling good in those first five minutes because they score on the opening power play, you have a different animal to deal with.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 39 saves in the loss.
“We had some good stretches in these four games but have not put a full 60 together, obviously, against four real good teams,” the Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen said. “It’s not always easy in their building, especially if you’re not feeling it. We have been through this previously, we know how to get out of it.”
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