In Newark, the Florida Panthers’ Sam Reinhart s hit for a double in a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils.
“I’m happy with the win,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We built a well-earned, solid lead (4-0) and got into a little penalty trouble toward the end. [New Jersey] is in the top three teams in the NHL. If they’re going to mount a comeback on skill, they can do it.
“We got some big blocks in the end and all the dirty, little gritty plays that you need to win. I’m happy with the way we started, the confidence we built. We had to hang on for it, but I’m fine with that.”
The Panthers had taken a 4-0 lead before New Jersey rallied to close the gap to one goal.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves in the Panthers’ first win over the season.
“It’s a way better feeling going home,” Maurice said. “You won your last game, so we’re excited about the next one.”
Reinhart scored at 3:54 of the first period for a 1-0 lead to the Panthers.
Carter Verhaeghe pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 13:12 of the first.
“We just believed in ourselves,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “I know it probably didn’t look pretty when they had chances to tie the game, but we battled hard. We tried to play the right way and I know they got a couple power plays at the end, so we tried to defend hard.
“The boys blocked the shots and ‘Bob’ was unreal in net.”
Niko Mikkola ballooned the lead to 3-0 at 13:12 of the second.
“That was an elite pass from [Tkachuk],” Mikkola said. “I almost missed it, but it was pretty easy for me.
Reinhart, who skated the right win, scored what would prove to be the winner with just 59 seconds gone in the third period for a 4-0 lead, ahead of the New Jersey rally.
“He’s always like that … he’s one of the smartest players in the League and he has this stick that suits him well in front of the net,” Barkov said of Reinhart. “He can do whatever he wants with that stick and touches pucks, makes plays and is just one of the smartest players I’ve seen.”
“Sometimes you won’t score, but the numbers right now for generating aren’t high enough in those first two periods,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “I thought they outskated us. I thought on the 50-50 compete, they won more battles than us.”
Erik Haula scored off the power play at 3:35 to trim the deficit to 4-1 for New Jersey.
Michael McLeod hit for a marker at 8:51 for a 4-2 count.
“Expectations are really high here and we haven’t been up to standard yet so far,” Devils forward Tyler Toffoli said. “So, it’s something that we have been talking about and got to continue to talk about and find a way to figure it out.”
Jesper Bratt added the final score of the night at 17:37 for the 4-3 final.
Vitek Vanecek made 25 saves in the loss.
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