The Florida Panthers outshot their hosts, the Washington Capitals, 40-20, and still lost the game Wednesday night, 4-3.
Braden Holtby made 37 saves to help the Caps escape the barrage.
“That’s him playing some of his best hockey,” Lars Eller said. “Especially tonight we really needed him to come up with that because we probably wouldn’t get out of here with two points if he didn’t play to that level. He played amazing. He was our best player.”
Brett Connolly, Vincent Trocheck and Mike Hoffman scored for the Panthers.
“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight,” Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville said. “That was a well-played game from our point of view, and we just need some saves to win the game in a game like tonight. We kept getting ourselves back in the game and doing a lot of good things, so it was a tough loss against a good team.”
Eller ,Brendan Leipsic, Alex Ovechkin and Richard Panik scored for the Caps.
“I kind of took a peek over my shoulder,” Leipsic said, “seeing how much time I had and was looking to see if I had a guy coming in late or not, but took that one to the hole and it paid off.”
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Capitals highlights]
Sergei Bobrovsky made 16 saves in the loss.
“We stuck with it,” Hoffman said. “They got up, we battled back, they’d go up and we’d get one back again. A couple little minor breakdowns, and they made us pay.”
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