Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for his 46th career shutout and second of the season as the Florida Panthers defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 on Wednesday in Sunrise, Fla.
Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and two assists and Sam Bennett and Aleksander Barkov also scored for the Panthers, who earned their fourth win in six games.
It was the 899th career victory for Florida coach Paul Maurice. His next win will make him only the fourth NHL coach with 900 victories.
Darcy Kuemper stopped 36 shots for the Kings, who have lost seven of their last nine (2-6-1) and have scored just 19 goals in their past 11 games.
Bennett gave Florida a 1-0 lead 4:55 into the game when he scored from below the bottom of the left faceoff circle. He put a forehand shot over Kuemper and under the crossbar after taking a cross-slot pass from Matthew Tkachuk.
Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, playing in his 1,000th career game, also earned an assist on the play.
Barkov netted a five-on-three power-play goal to make it 2-0 at 4:43 of the third period. He put in the rebound off the backboards of a shot by Tkachuk. The goal came five seconds after Los Angeles’ Warren Foegele was called for high-sticking, with teammate Trevor Lewis already in the penalty box for tripping.
Tkachuk added an empty-net goal with 1:12 remaining.
The Kings’ Alex Laferriere had an apparent goal waved off because of goaltender interference with 6:02 left in the first period. Lewis fell into Bobrovsky.
Barkov hit the goal post from the bottom of the right circle with five seconds left in the second period.
Bennett hit the goal post 6:37 into the third period.
Star Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty made his season debut. Doughty, 35, missed the first 47 games because of a broken left ankle sustained during a preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sept. 25. He had three shots on goal, a hit and was minus-2 in 23:51 of ice time.
Los Angeles sent Samuel Helenius down to the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League earlier on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
