The Florida Panthers played the second game of their season-long six-game home stand and topped the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins 6-5 on Saturday night at BB&T Center. The Panthers have been victorious in nine of their last 12 games. The Penguins had their six-game winning streak snapped and lost in regulation for the second time in 14 games.
It took a short while for Florida(28-25-6) to go up 1-0. Denis Malgin carried the through the neutral zone toward the Penguins blue line. He made an outlet pass to his left to Vincent Trocheck and he snapped a shot by Tristan Jarry at 3:44.
Pittsburgh(36-23-4) answered back and tied it 1-1 with 7:20 left in the first. Jamie Oleksiak had the puck in the right corner and poked it to Evgeni Malkin behind the Panthers cage. He backhanded a pass into the crease and Carl Hagelin scored on a one-time shot.
The Panthers got on the scoreboard with 38.8 seconds to go in the first period and moved ahead 2-1. Evgenii Dadonov received a pass from Aleksander Barkov on the right wing, skated toward the middle and fired a wrist shot from the high slot.
In the second period, the Cats made it a two-goal margin at 2:07. Jared McCann had his initial shot blocked by Jake Guentzel and recovered the puck. He slipped a pass from above the right circle to the left of the crease where Jamie McGinn placed the puck into the cage.
Florida extended their lead to 4-1 at the 8:12 mark. Colton Sceviour put a slap shot from the right wing on net which was saved. Derek MacKenzie came in from the left circle and smacked in the rebound. Jarry was pulled by the Pens from the net and replaced by Matt Murray.
The Penguins stayed in the contest as they closed the gap to 4-2 with 6:50 remaining in the second. Malkin made a give-and-go pass with Bryan Rust and finished the play with a shot from the slot area past Roberto Luongo for his 35th goal of the campaign.
The Pens scored quickly 46 seconds into the third period to make it 4-3. Hagelin stole the puck from a defender on the end wall and swept a pass to Malkin in the low right circle. He lifted a wrist shot for his second goal of the contest.
The Panthers answered back one minute later to regain a two-goal lead. Barkov had the puck in the high slot and found Dadonov in the right circle. He connected with a snap shot by Murray for his second goal of the game..
Pittsburgh would not die and scored two goals in 49 seconds to tie the contest 5-5. Sidney Crosby passed the puck down the end wall to Phil Kessel. He backhanded the puck to the crease and Patrick Hornqvist scored on a shot from close range with 5:39 to go. The Pens tied it up when Rust snapped a shot from the left circle off a feed from Brian Dumoulin with 4:50 left in third
Florida would get the final tally with 1:53 remaining in regulation. Barkov feed the puck from the high slot to Dadonov in the right circle and he put in his third goal of the contest for the hat trick and 18th goal of the season.
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