Panthers claw through Blue Jackets

In Columbus, Sergei Bobrovsky made 38 saves  to lead the Florida Panthers to a 4-2 win over the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.

“It was a good game definitely,” Bobrovsky said. “I faced lots of shots, and the guys really helped me there. And I knew that Columbus is a really good, hard working and they’re going to put the puck on the on the net and work around the net.”

Oliver Bjorkstrand and Michael Del Zotto were the Blue Jackets’ strikers.

“Offensively I thought after the first few minutes of the game, where it was a struggle, we started to play the right way,” Columbus head coach John Tortorella said. “I thought we moved on. I hated the second period defensively. Hated how we defended in the second period. Hated how soft we were in the second period defensively.

“On the other end, we played really well offensively but we just can’t defend that way, period, in that that second period. We cannot defend that way.”

Juho Lammikko opened the scoring in the game to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead in the first period.

“He was unreal tonight,” Lammikko said of Bobrovsky. “A lot of huge saves, especially in the third. He gets the lead, and it was fun to watch him. It was awesome.”

Patric Hornqvist pushed the lead to 2-0 off the power play before Del Zotto cut the lead to 2-1.

“We had a tremendous start to the game,” Florida head coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought we did a lot of great things. I thought we had a good second period and then we made some of the most unbelievable turnovers, giveaways, lack of playing the right way that I’ve ever seen. So that was tough to watch the last part of the game. We’ll take the win.”

Owen Tippett restored the Panthers’ two goal lead at 3-1.

Carter Verhaeghe added an empty-net goal for the final score of the night.

Joonas Korpisalo made 29 saves in the loss.

“We had a lot of chances,” Columbus’ Cam Atkinson said. “It was one of those nights where we just couldn’t bury it for whatever reason, but I thought we played a pretty decent game. [Bobrovsky] made some good saves but obviously we need to bury a few of our chances.”