In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers’ Patric Hornqvist‘s second goal of the game (power play) tied their match with the Chicago Blackhawks late in the third period to force extra time.
“He’s (Hornqvist) got that knack of playing [in front of the] goal,” Florida head coach Joel Quenneville said, who also scored in his Panthers debut Sunday. “He’s a distraction for goalies. Sometimes they have to play deep in their nets. There’s a lot of loose pucks hanging around in front of the net the last few games, and those have got to get to the back of the net at some point. Sometimes you get double, triple coverage in front of their own goalie, but he knows how to park himself there and he’s willing to fight those battles.”
Frank Vatrano put the game away for the Panthers at 2:50 of the extra session for a 5-4 win.
“It was a huge win,” Quenneville said. “And we’ll take it. Certainly some parts of our game have got to get better, but I liked the pace that we showed. I don’t know if we saw that pace at any point last year.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves in the win in his first start of the season.
“Obviously, four goals, not what you want, but I felt good in there,” Bobrovsky said. “In the circumstances I was in, I think I felt pretty good. There were a couple of mistakes here and there by me, so I have to clean it up, but overall I felt well. I felt my legs were good, my movement was good.”
Dominik Kubalik struck for two goals for the Hawks who dropped to 0-3-1.
“A lot of good performances from guys,” Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “I would have loved to see us get rewarded with two points, would have been a nice way to go home. But the focus still remains on getting better, and I think that was probably our best effort and we have to continue to go that direction.”
Patrick Kane and Philipp Kurashev added single markers for Chicago. 
“Obviously, I feel that’s kind of my wheelhouse, but I’m just happy to score, happy the power play was going pretty well,” Kubalik said. “I’m just really happy it worked out this time.”
Carter Verhaeghe also potted two goals for Florida.
Kevin Lankinen made 23 saves in the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.