Florida(26-7-5) raced out of the gate and got up 1-0 just 46 seconds into the contest. Aleksander Barkov placed the puck back from the left of the crease to the left point. MacKenzie Weegar backhanded a pass and Carter Verhaeghe lifted a forehand shot from the inner edge of the left circle over Elvis Merzlikins for his 12th goal this season.
The Panthers expanded their lead to 2-0 with the man advantage at the 2:07 mark. Aaron Ekblad angled a pass from the top of the zone to Jonathan Huberdeau on the left wing. He placed a square pass to Anthony Duclair and he one-timed a shot from the high slot for his 16th goal of the season.
It became 3-0 for the Cats at 9:27 as they got a shorthanded goal. Ekblad backhanded the puck from his own end wall to Sam Reinhart on the left side and he cleared it out. Weegar sprinted through center ice into the Columbus zone with a 2-on-1 breakaway and eventually scored on a wrist shot from the right circle for his third goal of the campaign.
The Panthers made it a four-goal margin with 6:32 left in the first. Reinhart connected a diagonal pass from the Panthers blue line. Verhaeghe moved to the top left circle and snapped a shot for his second tally of the game. Weegar picked up his third point of the contest. The Blue Jackets replaced Merzlikins in net with Joonas Korpisalo following that score.
In the second period, Columbus(17-18-1) surrendered another goal at the 2:02 mark and trailed 5-0. Sam Bennett made a cross-ice pass through the crease. Huberdeau poked in a shot from the top of the crease for his 15th goal of the season.
Florida increased it to 6-0 with 7:50 remaining in the second. Patric Hornqvist pushed the puck from the goal line and Ryan Lomberg carried it around the Blue Jackets. His centering pass resulted in an Anton Lundell goal from the low slot for his eighth tally of the campaign.
The Blue Jackets got on the scoreboard with a power-play goal at the 2;11 mark of the third period. Max Domi took a shot from the right circle which Sergei Bobrovsky made a blocker save, however Gustav Nyquist tapped in the rebound with a backhand from the blue paint.
The Panthers got it to a six-goal margin again at 3:40. Duclair brought the puck through the neutral zone and made a drop pass. Bennett fired a snap shot from the top right circle for his fourth goal in the last two contests.
It became 8-1 for Florida at the 7:33 mark. Ekblad faked a shot from the right point and passed to Weegar at the top left circle. He found Lundell alone in the crease for him to score his second goal of the contest.
The Panthers extended it to 9-1 with 9:46 to go in the third. Lomberg threw the puck from the left corner and Hornqvist tipped it in from the blue paint.
No comments:
Post a Comment