Panthers hand Carolina first loss of the season

In Sunrise, Anthony Duclair scored twice and the Florida Panthers potted four goals in the opening frame on Saturday night, for a 5-2 win over previously undefeated Carolina Hurricanes.

Spencer Knight made 29 saves for the Panthers in the win.

Jesper Fast and Vincent Trocheck scored for the Canes in the second period in an abbreviated rally.

“We could have maybe even won this game,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I would still be irate at the way we played. You can’t have five guys come to play. We just weren’t sharp. Good for them. They played a hard game, they did what they needed to that. We certainly didn’t.”

After Duclair opened the scoring in the first period, the Panthers’

“I don’t really think it’s a statement game,” Panthers head coach Andrew Brunette said. “There is [no such thing] in November. They don’t present trophies in November. It was a good test for our group and they responded to the challenge. We brought our A-game.”

Frank Vatrano scored off the power-play for a 2-0 lead, and Anton Lundell tacked on the third marker of the period for a 3-0 advantage.

The Panthers moved to 10-0-1 with the win.

Patric Hornqvist added another power-play strike in the 16th minute of the first period for the 4-0 margin after 20 minutes.

“The power play, it wasn’t pretty,” Brunette said. “Very opportunistic. Still some work for us to do there. I think we can get a lot smoother in a lot of different areas there.”

Carolina dropped to 9-1-0.

“9-1 is a great start,” the Hurricanes’ Jaccob Slavin said. “It’s definitely a good start and gets us going in the right direction. It wasn’t the start that we wanted tonight and some of that comes from hard work and just not being prepared right away.”

Duclair added an empty-net goal in the third period to ice the win.

“You know this team never quits, that’s always good,” Trocheck said. “But it’s a 60-minute game, not 40. We’ve got to come out a little better than we did.”