In Sunrise, the Panthers got much needed scoring from Matthew Tkachuk on Friday in a 5-2 win over the visiting Carolina Panthers.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves in the win.
The Panthers improved to 8-4-1.
Carolina’s Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored with just 80 seconds gone in the game for a 1-0 lead.
Tkachuk replied quickly, tying the game, 1-1, at 3:01.
The Panthers took the lead, 2-1, on Uvis Balinskis first career NH goal at 18:53 of the first frame.
“It is a dream come for me, for my family, for everyone,” said Balinskis. “It is an amazing feeling. It was a good play; we had a 2-on-1 with [Tkachuk] and he found me backdoor. I just needed to score.”
Alexander Barkov pushed the lad to 3-1 at 7:08 in the middle frame.
“Our lines were going today, and we played the right way,” Barkov said. “We know every time we play against Carolina that it is going to be a tough grind from start to finish. I thought we had a pretty good grind tonight.”
Carolina got that one back on a strike by Sebastien Aho at 16:40Â to trim the deficit to 3-2.
“They were good, we were bad, and that combination is not good,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s not going to work. Give them credit; I thought they played exactly the way they wanted to. We never got anything going.”
In the third period, the Panthers clamped down on the defense and added two markers.
Carolina dropped to 8-6-0.
Carter Verhaeghe struck at 13:18 of the third stanza for a 4-2 lead to the Panthers.
“I thought [Florida] was better in every area, and it starts with the compete level,” Aho said. “You can look up and down the roster and we could have been better. Our intention may have been there, but our execution was not. A lot of times there are crucial 50-50s which went their way, and they got momentum off of it. We spent way too much time in our zone.”
Kevin Stenlund hit an empty net at 16:18 for the 5-2 final.
Antti Raanta made 30 saves in the loss.
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