In Sunrise, the Vancouver Canucks had taken a 3-1 lead on the Panthers on Saturday, before thy surrendered two goals late for a 3-3 tie.
With five minutes left in the third, Andrei Kuzmenko restored the Canucks lead at 4-3.
Vancouver’s Brock Boeser hit an empty net with 2:10 left in the game for the 5-3 final.
“Good feeling after this game,” Kuzmenko said. “I felt it was a very important game, we needed the win. We didn’t get off to a very good start last year (0-5-2 in first seven games). Today we made a comeback, and I love these guys because they were a big help to me.”
Casey DeSmith made 34 saves in the win.
Florida’s Sam Reinhart hit for a double in the third period to get the teams even at 3-3.
“We were right there,’’ Reinhart said. “Their first two periods were really solid, and I thought they were heavier in the battle. They were winning the vast majority of the battles. We have been able to flip a switch in games, so I liked that again tonight. But we needed to be more urgent in the battle.
“Give them credit. They were really solid tonight.”
The Canucks took a 1-0 lead in the first period at 11:09 off a power play goal from Quinn Hughes g.
That lasted 20 seconds until Aleksander Barkov knotted the game, 1-1, for the Panthers.
“In the last 20 seconds I am not a fan of having four forwards out there, so we usually go with two [defensemen],” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said with a smile. “He will be in my office asking for PP time now, but that was a great goal.”
Midway through the second period, Carson Soucy scored off the power play to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead.
“The crowd started getting into it at 3-3, and we have been known over the past couple of years to let leads like that slip away,” Hughes said. “For us to kind of hold our ground, have confidence and see Casey make some big saves was great. We had guys ready to play and who wanted to win.”
Elias Pettersson made 3-1 for Vancouver at 11:51 of the middle frame.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves in the loss.
“I don’t expect us to be able to play all three periods like we did the third,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We can look a lot more like we did in the third on a more consistent basis, and I think we have. The seven periods going into the second here were pretty darn good. We were still in the game, it was 3-3.”
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