Vladimir Tarasenko, playing just his second game with his new team, scored two goals and had one assist, leading the host Florida Panthers to a 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon in Sunrise, Fla.
Florida has won seven of its past eight games. Calgary has won six of its past eight games.
The Panthers also got one goal each from Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Kevin Stenlund. Gustav Forsling had a game-high two assists, and backup goalie Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves to earn the win.
Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom, who started his career with the Panthers, took the loss. He made 26 saves.
Yegor Sharangovich scored Calgary’s only goal, his 26th of the season.
Florida opened the scoring just 23 seconds into the second period. Tarasenko intercepted a pass deep in Calgary’s end and then lifted the puck over Markstrom.
After Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov was hit with his second penalty of the game — this time for hooking Andrei Kuzmenko — Calgary tied the score with 14:09 left in the second. Stolarz stopped Nazem Kadri’s initial shot, but Sharongovich was there for the tap-in goal.
Florida took a 2-1 lead just 28 seconds later as Sam Reinhart stole the puck and fed it to Barkov, who scored from the right circle. Barkov’s shot beat Markstrom’s glove.
The Panthers scored twice more to close the second period with a 4-1 lead.
With 6:48 left in the second, Bennett deflected in a blistering shot from Forsling. It was originally called no-goal due to a suspected high stick, but the Panthers got the tally on video review.
Then, with 5:05 left in the second, Tarasenko scored from right circle as Markstrom was beaten on glove-side again. Forsling earned the primary assist for his pass to Tarasenko.
The Panthers took a 5-1 lead with 15:30 left in the third on Stenlund’s short-handed goal. The play started when Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen stole the puck in the neutral zone. He carried the puck before he dished a backhand pass to Stenlund. From there, Stenlund somehow corralled the bouncing puck before poking it past Markstrom.
–Field Level Media
