Vitek Vanecek made 21 saves in his Panthers debut, and defenseman Nate Schmidt provided two primary assists as Florida defeated the visiting Buffalo Sabres, 4-0, on Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Florida has won six straight games, and the Panthers have never trailed during that span. The Panthers are also 19-for-19 on the penalty kill in those six games.
A.J. Greer, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell and Sam Bennett (empty-netter) scored on Saturday for the Panthers.
Vanecek, acquired in a trade with San Jose on Wednesday, made perhaps his best save in Saturday’s first period, stopping Peyton Krebs on a breakaway. Vanecek also stopped a Zach Benson breakaway in the third. It was Vanecek’s first shutout in nearly two years.
Brad Marchand, also acquired by Florida just prior to the trade deadline on Thursday, did not play due to an upper-body injury. He is week-to-week. Yet another deadline acquisition, forward Nico Sturm, made his Panthers debut (no points).
Schmidt, meanwhile, nearly had two goals, but both of his shots were tapped in by teammates after getting past Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (32 saves).
The Panthers, who have outscored their opponents 20-5 during their winning streak, needed just 7:20 to score the game’s first goal.
Schmidt did most of the work, shooting from the left circle and then jamming the rebound forward between Luukkonen’s pads. Greer, who was on the doorstep behind Luukkonen, then tapped the puck in for a 1-0 lead.
The Panthers extended their lead to 2-0 with 9:32 elapsed in the second on Verhaeghe’s shot from the high slot, which found an open left side of the net. Luukkonen never saw the puck due to all the bodies in front of him.
Florida made it 3-0 with 17:09 expired in the second on a tap-in goal by Lundell on another primary assist for Schmidt.
Buffalo was given an opportunity to get back in the game as the Sabres were awarded a power play with 15:43 left in the third. However, the Sabres could not crack Florida’s defense.
Bennett’s empty-net goal with 34 seconds left capped the scoring.
–Field Level Media
