Panthers Fall To Blue Jackets In Long Shootout

     The Florida Panthers had to go eight rounds into a shootout and lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 at Nationwide Arena on Sunday night. The Panthers have reached the midway point of the regular season following the game. The Cats finish their long road trip at St. Louis on Tuesday.
     Columbus(24-16-3) put in a tally halfway through the first period at 9:47. Seth Jones forwarded the puck from the right wing to Pierre-Luc Dubois to the right of the crease. He backhanded it to Nick Foligno in the slot and he powered home a wrist shot by James Reimer.
     Florida(17-18-6) was able to tie it up 1-1 on the power play just 31 seconds into the second period. Aleksander Barkov poked the puck away from Jack Johnson in the right corner. Evgenii Dadonov snapped a cross-ice pass from the boards and Jonathan Huberdeau redirected it in from the top of the crease for his 15th goal of the season.
     The Blue Jackets converted on their own power play with 2:11 left in the second. Jones connected a pass from the right circle to the middle and Dubois pushed it in from the blue paint.
     In the third period, the Panthers added an extra attacker in the final two minutes during a 4-on-4 situation. Keith Yandle was at the top of the zone and found Huberdeau along at the top left circle. His pass bounced off a defender and Barkov lifted the puck into the cage from the left of the crease by Sergei Bobrovsky with 1:34 remaining for his 13th goal of the campaign.
     The shootout went for a while. Artemi Panarin scored on the Blue Jackets first attempt. Barkov matched for the Panthers in the second round. Johnson of Columbus and Michael Matheson of Florida both converted in the sixth round. Josh Anderson decided it with the game-winner during the eighth round.