Sergei Bobrovsky’s latest big performance for Florida Panthers also comes with an assist

The most important part about Sergei Bobrovsky’s performance in the Florida Panthers’ 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night was his season-high 38-save effort in net.

He stymied a high-flying Oilers offense led by superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisitl. He made big stop after big stop, turned away a slew of breakaways and second-chance opportunities, and negated a penalty shot in the third period that had the potential to swing the momentum of the game.

But late in the second period, Bobrovsky got involved in the Panthers’ offensive onslaught.

With Florida on the power play, Bobrovsky got hold of the puck behind his net and held onto it until Brandon Montour arrived to retrieve it. Montour then skated the length of the ice before giving a drop pass to Sam Bennett, who scored on a backhanded shot.

Bobrovsky was credited with the secondary assist — his first regular-season point in five seasons with the Panthers.

(It should be noted Bobrovsky did have an assist in the Panthers’ Game 7 win against the Boston Bruins on their way to the Stanley Cup Final last season.)

Bobrovsky’s 11 career regular-season assists are the sixth-most among active NHL goaltenders, behind only Marc-Andre Fleury (21), Jonathan Quick (20), Andrei Vasilevski (18), Jacob Markstrom (16) and Frederik Andersen (14).

“I’m sure he loves helping out on the offense,” Bennett said during a Bally Sports Florida intermission interview. “Our power play needed it, so maybe we just needed to give it to Bob a little more.”

Bobrovsky could only smile when that message was relayed to him.

“It’s just a play that happens,” Bobrovsky said. “I’m not going to take credit for that.”

Bobrovsky should take credit for the rest of his performance on Saturday, considering it was arguably his best outing of the season. He kept the Oilers at bay while the Panthers built a 3-0 lead in the first period. The only goal he allowed came on a Zach Hyman backhanded shot 8:08 into the second period to cut Florida’s lead to 3-1.

Overall, the Oilers had 30 scoring chances, 11 high-danger chances, four shots off the rush and six shots off rebounds.

Nothing fazed Bobrovsky.

“It was a good game,” Bobrovsky said. “It was definitely a dangerous opponent, so it’s fun to play those games against really good offensive teams. I was involved.”

With the win, Bobrovsky now has 374 in his NHL career. That ties him with John Vanbiesbrouck for the 18th-most in NHL history. Vanbiesbrouck played 882 career games. Bobrovsky got to the mark in his 665th career game.

He is 14-8-1 this season with a .911 save percentage.

“You’re not beating these guys on home ice unless you get a goaltending performance like that,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He was quick. As dynamic and as explosive as he was, he was also incredibly calm. You could feel it from the bench that he wasn’t getting beat tonight.”