In Sunrise, Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe scored at 6:10 of the third period to snap a 2-2 tie with the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday afternoon.
“They are a really good team and beat us last year, obviously,” Verhaeghe said. “It was an emotional game, but we wanted to get right back on track. It was nice to get to get the win.”
Sam Reinhart scored off the power play at 8:09 to help send the Panthers to a 4-2 win.
“We did not care for our last game and that was more style than the result,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “The first period was stylistically about as close to the style we want to play, and you’re still with zeros. We needed something positive and we got some power plays, finished it the way we did. That’s the game we try to play.”
The Panthers moved to 19-12-2, snapping a two-game skid.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves in the win.
Mark Stone scored in the middle frame to give the Knights a 1-0 lead at 1:21.
Sam Bennett added a marker at 8:58 to knot the match at 1-1.
“We were playing a really solid game, so we knew it was just a matter of time until we got one,” Bennett said. “It was big that we were able to capitalize and start rolling after.
“… It had a little bit of a playoff feel to that game. It was an intense game – lots of hitting, lots of physical play. I thought that was a really solid 60-minute game from our group.”
Vegas dropped to 21-9-5.
“They were good for 20 minutes and it was a 0-0 game; that was the good news,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Florida is the type of team that throws a lot at the net and probably outshoot a lot of teams, but maybe do not outscore them. I was concerned at whether we would respond, [but] we did. We scored on the first shift of the second.
“The first 20 [minutes] was probably our worst of the year. We expected Florida to come out after the way their year ended, but we got better as the game went on.”
The Flames took a 2-1 lead at 15:16 off a strike by Gustav Forsling off a shot from high up through a gaggle in the low slot.
Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev scored with 23 seconds left on the clock in the middle frame for a 2-2 tie headed to the third period.
After Verhaeghe put the Panthers in front, scored on a power play at 8:09 of the third when he spun and beat Patera from the right circle following a feed from Barkov for the 4-2 final.
“It is probably a good time for the [holiday] break,” said Stone, the Golden Knights captain. “It was not our best road trip, and we didn’t play enough 60-minute hockey in the three games. We have been through some adversity before, and we’ll be ready to go out of the break.”
Jiri Patera, made 38 saves, in in the loss.
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