In Raleigh, Noel Acciari did not get a hat trick but he did score for the Florida Panthers in a 4-2 win over the Hurricanes on Saturday night.
Chris Driedger made 42 saves to get the win.
“Over the course of the season, you get some goalie wins, that was one of them,” Florida head coach Joel Quenneville said. “He was great. He was square, patient, his rebound control was huge. He challenged at the right times. It was an outstanding game.”
Nino Niederreiter and Lucas Wallmark scored for the Canes.
“We didn’t get the bounces tonight, that’s essentially all it was,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Their goalie was great. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He made a ton of really nice saves, and I give their team credit for blocking a lot of shots (23). They were sacrificing and doing the things necessary to win a game, but I thought our game was solid.”
Evgenii Dadonov, Brian Boyle (power play) and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for the Panthers.
“When we get power-play opportunities on the road on a back-to-back, I won’t say it’s more important, but you really want to execute and steal momentum,” Boyle said. “I think we did a good job of that.”
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Petr Mrazek made 18 saves in the loss.
“The boys kept battling,” Hurricanes’ Jordan Staal said. “I love that we don’t go away. We tried to find a way to win the game, but we came up short tonight.”
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