Sam Reinhart had three assists as the Florida Panthers scored five unanswered goals for a 5-2 road win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C.
The Panthers are 8-2-0 over their last 10 games, including two third-period comebacks against the Hurricanes in the last five days. Florida’s 4-3 shootout win over Carolina on Friday saw the Panthers erase a 3-0 deficit by scoring three goals in the last 10 minutes of regulation.
On Tuesday, the Hurricanes’ 2-0 lead held until 3:53 of the third period, when Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola scored his first goal of the season. This tally from an unlikely source opened the floodgates for the Panthers, who outshot Carolina 14-3 in the third period.
Mikkola, Luke Kunin, Anton Lundell, Sam Bennett, and Seth Jones scored the Panthers’ goals. Eetu Luostarinen and Aaron Ekblad each had two assists.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 17 of 19 shots to earn his 16th win of the season, and the 445th of his career. The victory moved Bobrovsky into a tie with Terry Sawchuk for eighth place on the all-time NHL goaltender wins list.
The Hurricanes are winless (0-2-1) in their last three games, despite holding multi-goal leads in all three contests. When leading after two periods this season, Carolina is 0-1-1 against Florida and 14-0-0 against other opponents.
Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen allowed five goals on 22 shots.
Eric Robinson and Andrei Svechnikov tallied the Hurricanes’ goals. Robinson opened the scoring at 4:11 of the first period, and Svechnikov emerged from the penalty box to score on a breakaway 1:58 into the second period.
After Mikkola put Florida on the board, Kunin buried a rebound for the equalizer at 6:17 of the third period. Just 53 seconds later, Reinhart’s nice pass from behind the net found Lundell for the go-ahead conversion.
A fortunate bounce off the boards helped set up Bennett’s goal at the 9:57 mark, and Bennett did well to keep control of the puck amidst multiple Hurricanes players. Jones’ power-play goal was the final strike for the Panthers at 15:21 of the third frame.
–Field Level Media
