The Florida Panthers played their first NHL game in Las Vegas and lost to the Golden Knights 5-2 on Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena. Florida faced their former head coach Gerard Gallant who was let go by the club in November 2016. It was the fourth game of a five-game road trip for the Cats.
It did not take that long for Florida(12-16-5) to get on the scoreboard. Radim Vrbata scored on a one-timer from the left circle for a power-play goal with assists from Denis Malgin and Nick Bjugstad at 2:58.
The Panthers made it 2-0 at the 5:13 mark. Mike Matheson put in a tally on a slap shot from the top left circle by Malcom Subban on assists from Evgenii Dadonov and Vincent Trocheck.
Vegas(21-9-2), who are on pace to break the Panthers record in 1993-94 for most points by an NHL expansion franchise, cut the margin just over one minute later. Nate Schmidt scored on a primary assist by former Panther Reilly Smith.
Colin Miller would tie the contest 2-2 with 2:40 left in the first period on a slap shot from the top of the zone. Another former Panther Jonathan Marchessault got an assist on a pass from the right point along with James Neal.
After no scoring during the second period, the Golden Knights finally got the lead with 8:20 remaining in the third. Marchessault spun and fired a wrist shot from the right point. Eric Haula redirected the puck past James Reimer from the right of the crease area.
The Cats pulled their goalie for an extra attacker with 2:30 to go and Vegas scored soon after. Marchessault ripped a shot from inside the red line into an empty net off a cross-ice feed by Smith with 2:10 remaining. Neal followed with an empty-net goal from his own goal line with 27.9 seconds left.
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