In Sunrise, after a scoreless first period, the visiting New Jersey Devils potted two goals in the middle frame to take a 2-0 lead on the Panthers.
Of late, the Panthers have found their stride, and on Saturday they found it in the third period when they scored four unanswered goals in a 4-2 win over New Jersey.
Sam Reinhart hit for a double in the third for Florida.
Three of the goals came in a span of two and half minutes to erase the deficit and take the lead.
Aleksander Barkov and Reinhar tscored to get the Panthers even at 2-2.
“I liked our bounce back in the third,” Reinhart said. “We started moving our feet a little, started creating some chances and we capitalized. It was a back-and-forth night and they hung on. Then they took it to us and took some wind out of our sails. We got the power-play goal and really pushed forward in the third.”
The Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk finished off the three-goal outburst at 8:44 and a 3-2 lead.
“Having come back in a few games lately was in their memory,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “They knew we could come back. And we deserved that win. They are one of the elite teams in the NHL and you would expect them to control some parts of the game, but overall I thought we were strong.”
Florida improved to 35-27-7, and moved within one point of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Pens were whacked by the New York Rangers, 6-0, on Saturday.
“It was nice to get a bounce, which we were not getting in the first 40 minutes,” Tkachuk said. “To get one in the third was kind of shocking to see. It bounced our way and it went right to Barkov. His line was awesome in the third.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves in the win.
New Jersey took the 2-0 lad in the middle frame on strikes from Nico Hischier and Jesper Boqvist .
“Really just a couple of big breakdowns,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “I’m embarrassed what we did to our goaltender. … We’ve been good with playing with a lead, [but] that one, that’s not Devils hockey.”
New Jersey dropped to 44-18-7 off their third straight loss.
“We had the perfect situation going into the third,” New Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler said. “We just gave it away. It shouldn’t happen. Everybody knows it in here.”
Reinhart added an empty net goal for the 4-2 final.
Akira Schmid made 37 saves in the loss.
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