Florida Panthers cap strong first homestand with comeback win over Seattle Kraken
It’s safe to say Paul Maurice wasn’t a fan of the Florida Panthers’ first period on Saturday.
“We came out flat and slow,” the Panthers’ coach said.
The rest of their game? Everything worked out just fine.
The Panthers scored two goals in an 11-second span midway through the second period to erase an early deficit and Nick Cousins put them ahead for good with a late third-period goal in a 3-2 win over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Panthers (4-3-0) had just eight scoring chances in the opening frame and gave up their first of two goals in that span. Florida then rallied down the stretch, using a dominant second period (12-5 edge in scoring chances and 13-3 advantage in shots on goal) to level the game before taking their only lead in the third.
“What’s very, very difficult to do in the NHL is have a first period like that and then find a way to dig yourselves out,” Maurice said. “I thought we were good even going down 2-0. It didn’t trigger them. We were good from the start of the second period pretty much. ... We just played a heck of a lot harder.”
The Panthers went 3-1-0 on their four-game homestand, also picking up wins against the Toronto Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks but dropping a game against the Vancouver Canucks.
“You’ve got to feel good at home,” Maurice said. “You do. Because our travel is different than most other teams’ travel with the amount of miles that we put on an airplane. The road can be a real grind for us. Home has to be a good place and a big chunk of that is just mentally believing that you’re a good home team.”
Strong effort from third line
Cousins scored his goal, his first of the season which came with 5:52 left to play, on a vacated net as Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord was out of position after defenseman Josh Mahura dumped the puck into the zone and it bounced right in front of the net.
It was a rewarding moment for Cousins individually and Florida’s third forward line overall as the group was effective all game despite coach Paul Maurice swapping centers early in the game — moving Anton Lundell to the second line and dropping Eetu Luostarinen to the third line between Cousins and Ryan Lomberg.
“It’s one of those things where I thought our line did a lot of good things well,” Cousins said. “We had a lot of chances, put the puck in the net and then fortunate enough to get a bounce there in the third and capitalize. It makes all those chances you missed early on in the game — they don’t sting as much.”
Cousins had five shots on goal and Lomberg three.
According to the advanced hockey website Natural Stat Trick, the Panthers had a 15-2 edge in shots on goal and 11-2 edge in scoring chances when Cousins and Lomberg were on the ice together at full strength Saturday.
“They could sense what wasn’t there for us,” Maurice said. “They got on the body first. They were the first guys to get in there and get after it a little bit. I think that got the bench moving in the right direction. They were good all night.”
How the comeback started
It was also the final piece of Florida’s comeback after the Kraken (2-5-2) built a 2-0 by the early stages of the second period.
Defenseman Gustav Forsling cut the Panthers’ deficit in half with a power-play goal on a shot from the point. On the ensuing shift, Matthew Tkachuk deflected in a Dmitry Kulikov shot to tie the game with 10:56 left in the second period.
Kulikov finished with two assists.
“It was huge,” Forsling said. “We got the momentum going into the third.”
Sergei Bobrovsky’s big finish
Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky had 30 saves on Saturday to pick up the win.
It didn’t necessarily come easy at first.
Jared McCann opened scoring for Seattle with 12:02 left in the first period with a backhanded shot from just in front of the net. The Kraken then went up 2-0 on Eeli Tolvanen’s tip-in 7:34 into the second period before Forsling and Tkachuk scored their goals on back-to-back shifts to tie the game and Cousins scored the game-winner in the third.
Bobrovsky stopped the final 15 shots that came his way after giving up the Tolvanen goal.
“We turned on in the second period,” Bobrovsky said. “I only faced three shots or something like that in the second and in the third period, we shut the door.”
Through six starts this season, Bobrovsky is 3-3-0 with a .906 save percentage.
Up next
The Panthers play their next three games on the road, starting Monday at 7 p.m. against the Boston Bruins followed by a 7 p.m. game Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings and 8 p.m. Saturday matchup with the Chicago Blackhawks.
