Another home game, another victory for the Florida Panthers.
On Saturday, Florida welcomed the Buffalo Sabres to Sunrise and came away with an exciting 3-2 shootout victory.
The two Atlantic Division rivals played a scoreless opening period, until a tripping penalty by Evan Rodrigues gave the Sabres their first power play of the game.
Rasmus Dahlin rushed the puck up the ice and made a nice give-and-go play with Jason Zucker, ending up with a wide-open net and giving Buffalo a 1-0 lead with 19 seconds left in the first period.
A nice play by Carter Verhaeghe would tie the game early in the second period.
After Seth Jones missed the net with a long wrist shot, Verhaeghe picked up the carrum off the back boards and drove to the net, making a nice move to his backhand and beating a sprawling Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Almost exactly 10 minutes later, Jesse Puljujarvi picked up his first goal as a member of the Panthers, deflecting a shot by Uvis Balinskis to give Florida their first lead of the game.
It would then be Buffalo’s turn to tie the game, and once again they would score while on the power play.
This time it was JJ Peterka scoring from a sharp angle off a nice feed from Dahlin just as a 5-on-3 advantage was expiring for Buffalo.
The knotted score would hold throughout the remainder of regulation and the five-minute overtime session, so the game headed to a shootout.
An opening goal by Anton Lundell would be all Florida needed as Vitek Vanecek stopped Jack Quinn, Peterka and Alex Tuch to seal the deal for the Cats.
On to the Rangers.
QUICK THOUGHTS
Balinskis played in his 100th NHL game, notching his 14th assist of the season and third over his past two outings.
Verhaeghe has now scored in consecutive games for just the third time this season and the first time since Feb. 1 and 2.
He also logged an assist, giving Verhaeghe four points over a three-game point streak.
Seth Jones has logged four assists over his past seven games.
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