Panthers win ninth straight, keep Jets from gaining in wild card
Huberdeau has two goals, assist, extends point streak to 13 for Florida
By
Alain Poupart
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
Huberdeau had two goals and an assist, extending his NHL record for assists in a season by a left wing to 78 and his Panthers single-season record to 108 points (30 goals). He has 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) during his streak and is two behind Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers for the NHL points lead.
"We have a special team," Huberdeau said. "We're excited for what's coming up."
Gustav Forsling scored two goals, and Claude Giroux had three assists for the Panthers (53-15-6). Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves and set a Florida record with his 36th victory of the season. Roberto Luongo won 35 games in 2005-06 and 2015-16.
"To be honest, I didn't know about that," Bobrovsky said. "I just found out after the game. They gave me a puck and said that I got the record. But it's a team record. It's not me, it's all about the team. By myself I'm nothing, but as a team we're strong."
The Panthers lead the Toronto Maple Leafs by 10 points for first place in the Atlantic Division.
"I don't really look (at the standings)," Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. "I know we're in a good position. I just expect everybody's going to win. And we've got to keep winning and more importantly we were a little unhappy with our group there a little bit for some of those games, even though we came back, but I thought we tightened some things up here the last week or so. And I think that's a sign where we can try to keep building and get our complete both sides of the puck game to as high as we possibly can before the playoffs."
Nikolaj Ehlers scored for the Jets (35-29-11), who had won two in a row. Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves on 26 shots before being replaced by Eric Comrie (15 saves) to start the third period.
Winnipeg trails the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars by eight points for a wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"That's why we're not in a playoff spot," Ehlers said. "We haven't played the right way in a lot of games. You see what that leads to. Everyone needs to be held accountable. It [stinks]. It just [stinks]."
Huberdeau gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 2:03 of the first period on a rebound of Giroux's shot that bounced off the end boards. He made it 2-0 at 4:47 after taking Giroux's pass across the front of the goal.
"We didn't come out ready to play," Ehlers said. "Our line gets scored on the first two shifts. Straight up, that's not good enough. They're a great team and we're not good enough."
Florida had a goal disallowed at 5:53 after the Jets successfully challenged for goaltender interference.
Forsling extended the lead to 3-0 at 2:55 of the second period with a backhand on a breakaway after coming out of the penalty box. He made it 4-0 at 16:21 when his shot from the high slot deflected off the stick of Jets forward Kyle Connor.
"It's fun to score," Forsling said. "I want to keep doing that for sure. It's not every day I come out of the box like that. I think that might have been my first backhand goal ever, so that felt good for sure."
Ehlers cut it to 4-1 at 1:08 of the third period with a rebound from a sharp angle before Mason Marchment pushed the Florida lead to 5-1 at 1:54.
Maxim Mamin made it 6-1 on a breakaway at 7:00.
"We look at the result here tonight and it's extremely disappointing," Jets coach Dave Lowry said. "It's all about what you take from a game. The way we played isn't winning hockey."
NOTES: Ehlers extended his point streak to an NHL career-high eight games (13 points; six goals, seven assists). … Jets forward Blake Wheeler played 16:24 and had three shots on goal after missing three games with an upper-body injury. Winnipeg forward Jansen Harkins played 10:04 after missing four games with an upper-body injury. … With their ninth consecutive home victory, the Panthers joined the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings as the only teams in NHL history with three home winning streaks of nine games or longer in a season. … Huberdeau tied Pavel Bure for the second longest point streak in Panthers history (1999-2000), behind Mike Hoffman's 17-game run in 2018-19. … With Huberdeau joining Aleksander Barkov and Anthony Duclair, the Panthers have three 30-goal scorers in the same season for the second time. It also happened in 2018-19 (Hoffman, 36; Barkov, 35; Huberdeau, 30). ... Barkov had an eight-game point streak end.
