In St Paul, Noel Acciari scored the game0winning goal for the Florida Panthers with just six ticks on the regulation clock in the third period to give the Panthers a 5-4 win ov er their hosts, the Minnesota Wild on Monday.
Vincent Trocheck had tied the game at 3-3 with just over four minutes left in the game.
“I’ve never won before in this building,” Trocheck said . “It’s always a bit of a mental grind, and we battled hard at the end there. Huge win, especially with the [All-Star] break coming up there, in the tight race we’re running.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves to get the win.
Luke Kunin struck for two goals, Jared Spurgeon Zach Parise added single markers for the Wild.
“That one hurts,” Kunin said. “It feels kind of like we just gave it away. … We’re at the point where we have to start winning, put together a string here. No one in this locker room likes to lose, so this one hurts.”
Keith Yandle (four points) and Aleksander Barkov (two points) each had a goal for the Panthers.
“We want to keep this thing rolling,” Yandle said. “I think the good thing about it, we weren’t satisfied just going into overtime. We didn’t play on our heels, that’s when you can get in trouble. So you find a way to win in regulation. … Finding a way to win in regulation was a huge two points for us.”
Evgenii Dadonov also scored for the Panthers.
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Wild highlights]
Alex Stalock took the loss on 20 saves.
“Pretty disheartening,” Parise said. “From getting ourselves back into the driver’s seat and feeling like a few more shifts and we had to close it out to not getting a point out of it, that’s a tough one right now where we are. That’s a tough one to take.”
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