In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers were defeated by the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-2, on Thursday night.
The Canes killed off eight of nine penalties, and Sebastian Aho scored two shorthanded markers for Carolina.
The Canes were 1-for-3 on the power play.
“We played our butts off,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Had to kill penalties. We had guys log 800 minutes and block shots. That’s how you got to win. That was a great effort. Great saves. Everything. It was a gross hockey game, but that’s because we were in the box the whole night. But that was a great effort by a lot of guys tonight.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 32 saves to get the win.
“I thought I had a breakaway there, but [Necas] is fast,” Aho said. “He caught me and it was a 2-on-0. It was kind of surprising. Obviously, you don’t get many of those. It was kind of a funny moment, but happy to be able to score on that.”
Aleksander Barkov scored both Florida goals.
“Coming here, I had the same questions as the (six) other games, same type of games, same type of finish,” Barkov said. “Tight game and they find a way to win those games. We’re in a good spot in the standing but Carolina has been beating us this season. We have to find a way to apply the whole 60 minutes.”
Jordan Martinook and Nino Niederreiter (power play) also scored for Carolina.
“Every win is huge, especially against teams like Tampa and Florida,” Necas said. “These games feel kind of like playoff games. It was a huge game. You got to build on that and maybe next game don’t take as many penalties. It’s pretty hard to defend those.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves in the Florida loss.
“It had that (playoff) feel, from puck drop to the final buzzer,” the Panthers’ Ryan Lomberg said. “We knew it was going to be an intense game. You’ve got to tip your cap to them, they played well. We welcome the challenge, we know we can beat this team, so we’re looking ahead looking forward to next game.
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