With just under five seconds left in regulation, the Florida Panthers’ Vincent Trocheck scored through a crowd to give the Panthers a 2-1 win over the St Louis Blues.
Kames Reimer picked up win St Louis – file photo by Jack Lima
The win was the Panthers’ fifth straight and ended a five-game roadie with a perfect record.
Florida improved to 28-20-10 and have won eight of their last nine games.
“It was just a strong cycling down low by Jussi [Jokinen] and [Reilly Smith],” Trocheck said. “They tried to get the puck out, but [Mark] Pysyk made a great play keeping the puck in going down the wall. He threw it up top to me. I took one shot, they blocked it. Got it back, I had a lane. Jussi was in front and I don’t think Allen even saw it. I just kind of did the easy work.”
James Reimer made 26 saves for the win.
“First off, I couldn’t be more proud,” Panthers coach Tom Rowe said. “The coaching staff, everybody that’s part of the team, the front office back home. We couldn’t be more proud of these players. It’s a great group of players and everybody deserves it.
“It’s been a long season, it’s been a hard season and now everything is coming together but again, we’ve got a long way to go. It’s going to be a dogfight until the end of the season.”
Jonathan Marchessault scored Florida’s first goal.
“We needed it. We know we’re in the playoff race. We talked about it before the road trip that these five games were going to be huge for us coming into the playoff race. The fact that we went into California and swept three great teams, then Nashville and St. Louis, also two great teams, so it showed a lot of courage on our team,” Trocheck said of the win and the Panthers sudden presence in the playoff race.
The Blues’ lone goal was scored by Kyle Brodziak.
“I think we put ourselves in a position where we should have a bad taste in our mouth for a couple of days,” Blues head coach Mike Yeo said.
WATCH: All Panthers vs. Blues highlights
Jake Allen made 31 saves in taking the loss as the Blues fell back to 31-24-5.
“It’s terrible. Terrible finish,” Allen said. “We needed a win tonight just to have positive momentum into the break. We had a chance, came [up] short.”
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