It is a tradition for the past 33 seasons that both teams face other around St. Patrick's Day. Bill Torrey had been in a management role of either club for over four decades and wanted both teams to play each other at this time of the year.
Some of the finest moments have occurred in their regular season clashes around this time of the year. Pavel Bure became the first Panthers player to score his 60th goal of the season in 2000 at the Nassau Coliseum. The Panthers came back from a two-goal deficit in the third period with four goals in 2014. The Islanders erased a two-goal margin during the third period in 2016.
There was no scoring in the opening period. Florida(41-24-3) went ahead 1-0 exactly one minute into the second period. Gustav Forsling took a shot from the left point which was saved. Aleksander Barkov steered the puck from the top of the crease and Sam Reinhart got his 33rd goal of the campaign on a forehand shot past Ilya Sorokin from the left side of the crease.
The Cats extended it to 2-0 at 4:48 of the second on the power play. Eetu Luostarinen cycled the puck from the right corner. Reinhart released a shot from the right wing and it deflected off Barkov's left hip in the crease area for his 18th goal of the season.
New York(30-28-8) would control the third period. Marc Gatcomb made a wraparound shot at the 6:29 mark for his fourth goal this year and they were down 2-1. It was the first goal given up by Vitek Vanecek in his appearance with the Panthers.
The Islanders scored twice in a 17-second span and led 3-2. Maxim Tsyplakov came in on a breakaway and buried a wrist shot from the top of the crease. Noah Dobson gave them a 3-2 lead with 7:27 remaining in the third when he raced through the left circle and scored his seventh goal of the year on a wrist shot from close range.
The Panthers pulled Vanecek for an extra attacker with over two minutes left. Simon Holmstrom added an empty-net goal with 6.5 seconds to go for a 4-2 lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment