Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Panthers Edge Blue Jackets

     The Florida Panthers played their first road game of the 2020-21 season and beat to the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 in a shootout on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena. The Panthers won their first three regular season games for the first time in franchise history.
     Columbus(2-2-3) jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 2:11 of the first period. Kevin Stenland got his first goal of the campaign. Mikko Koivu made his debut with his new team and got the primary assist on the play. 
     The Blue Jackers scored on their second shot of the contest at the 9:17 mark. Boone Jenner stole the puck from MacKenzie Weegar in the right corner and centered it. Oliver Bjorkstrand flicked a shot from the right-circle dot that grazed off Alexandre Texier and over the left shoulder of Sergei Bobrovsky for his fourth goal. 
     Florida(3-0-0) answered back on a delayed penalty with 6:46 left in the first. Anthony Duclair took a wrist shot from the slot that went wide left. Carter Verhaeghe banked the puck off Joonas Koprisalo from the back wall off and into the cage for his third goal this season. 
     In the second period, the Panthers evened it up 2-2 at 3:53. Aleksander Barkov compiled his first goal of the season. Verhaeghe and Duclair got assists for both of them to have multi-point games. 
     It would become 3-2 for Columbus at the 1:20 mark of the third period. Nick Foligno sent a long lead pass out of his zone. Cam Atkinson skated into the Panthers zone and snapped a shot from the top right circle for a shorthanded goal. 
     The Panthers pulled their goalie with just under two minutes to go and they were able to tie the contest 3-3 with under a three seconds left. Aaron Ekblad fired shot from above the right circle which was stopped, however Patric Hornqvist batted in the rebound from the top of the crease. 
     The game went into a shootout. Jonathan Huberdeau made the Panthers second attempt with a snap shot through the legs of Korpisalo. Bjorkstrand kept the Blue Jackets alive on their third attempt when he roofed a forehand shot. Florida would win the contest on their fifth attempt as Hornqvist lifted a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net. Hornqvist scored a shootout situation for the first time in his NHL career after going 0-for-6. 

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