In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers won their ninth straight, 6-1, over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night.
Jonathan Huberdeau hit for a double and added an assist in the win.
“We have a special team,” Huberdeau said. “We’re excited for what’s coming up.”
Florida improved to 53-15-6.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves in the Panthers win.
“To be honest, I didn’t know about that,” Bobrovsky said. “I just found out after the game. They gave me a puck and said that I got the record. But it’s a team record. It’s not me, it’s all about the team. By myself I’m nothing, but as a team we’re strong.”
Nikolaj Ehlers was the lone goal scorer in the Jets loss.
Winnipeg lost a chance to pick up points in the Western Conference wild card chase.
The Jets dropped to 35-29-11.
“We look at the result here tonight and it’s extremely disappointing,” Jets coach Dave Lowry said. “It’s all about what you take from a game. The way we played isn’t winning hockey.”
Gustav Forsling also hit for a pair of goals for Florida.
Ehlers scored early in the third period to shave the Panthers lead to 4-1.
“We didn’t come out ready to play,” Ehlers said. “Our line gets scored on the first two shifts. Straight up, that’s not good enough. They’re a great team and we’re not good enough.”
Mason Marchment pushed the advantage to 5-1.
“I don’t really look (at the standings),” Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. “I know we’re in a good position. I just expect everybody’s going to win. And we’ve got to keep winning and more importantly we were a little unhappy with our group there a little bit for some of those games, even though we came back, but I thought we tightened some things up here the last week or so. And I think that’s a sign where we can try to keep building and get our complete both sides of the puck game to as high as we possibly can before the playoffs.”
The Panthers’ Maxim Mamin hit for a goal at 7:00 for the 6-1 final.
Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves in the Jets loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.