Panthers defeat Wild on late Acciari goal, get fifth straight win

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Noel Acciari scored the go-ahead goal with six seconds left for the Florida Panthers in a 5-4 victory against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Monday.

It was the first road win in regulation for the Panthers against the Wild. They had lost seven straight games (0-6-1) at Minnesota since a 3-2 shootout victory March 9, 2010.
"I've never won before in this building," said Vincent Trocheck, who scored to tie the game 4-4 with 4:08 remaining. "It's always a bit of a mental grind, and we battled hard at the end there. Huge win, especially with the All-Star] break coming up there, in the tight race we're running."
***[WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Wild highlights]*
After Trocheck shot over the net with 13 seconds remaining, Aaron Ekblad tipped Mark Pysyk's wrist shot from the left point before Acciari deflected it past goalie Alex Stalock. The goal was upheld after video review showed Acciari played the puck with his stick below the crossbar.
"That's what you call a break, very opportunistic break," Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. "It was one of those games where third period, pucks were going in and we're behind for the first time. I thought that didn't look very promising there with five minutes to go, and then bang, bang. So [Trocheck] made a great individual play there, and then almost hit the net. Both teams had several of those in the course of the game. They had more than we did. We were very fortunate."
Keith Yandle had a goal and three assists, and Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (27-16-5), who have won five games in a row and six of seven. Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for his fourth victory in five starts.

Luke Kunin scored twice, and Jared Spurgeon had a goal and an assist for the Wild (22-21-6), who lost for the first time in three games.
"That one hurts," Kunin said. "It feels kind of like we just gave it away. … We're at the point where we have to start winning, put together a string here. No one in this locker room likes to lose, so this one hurts."
Minnesota went 2-for-4 on the power play and scored a shorthanded goal.
Yandle scored from the slot off a pass from Mike Hoffman at 4:01 of the first period to give Florida a 1-0 lead.

Spurgeon tied it 1-1 on the power play with 17 seconds remaining in the period.
Barkov made it 2-1 when he took a long pass from Jason Brown, got behind defenseman Carson Soucy, and flipped it high past Stalock at 7:28 of the second period.
Kunin scored off a pass from Joel Eriksson Ek on a shorthanded 2-on-1 to tie it 2-2 at 10:59.
Evgenii Dadonov redirected a shot by Yandle on the power play at 2:02 of the third period to put the Panthers ahead 3-2.
Zach Parise scored on the power play to tie it 3-3 at 4:19.
Kunin one-timed a pass from Eriksson Ek at 7:06 to give the Wild their first lead of the game, 4-3.

"Pretty disheartening," Parise said. "From getting ourselves back into the driver's seat and feeling like a few more shifts and we had to close it out to not getting a point out of it, that's a tough one right now where we are. That's a tough one to take."
Stalock made 20 saves.

They said it

"We want to keep this thing rolling. I think the good thing about it, we weren't satisfied just going into overtime. We didn't play on our heels, that's when you can get in trouble. So you find a way to win in regulation. … Finding a way to win in regulation was a huge two points for us." -- Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle
"I think right now, we needed the win. We needed the win. That's the only thing we should be looking for right now, is how can we get wins. And it didn't happen." -- Wild forward Zach Parise

Need to know

Florida is 12-4-0 in its past 16 games. ... The Panthers are 2-9-1 with one tie on the road against the Wild. ... Yandle is one goal shy of 100 in his career. ... Barkov has three goals and five assists during a five-game point streak. ... Hoffman has five goals and six assists during a nine-game point streak. ... Parise, who leads the Wild with 19 goals, has scored five times during a four-game goal streak. ... Minnesota has scored 10 power-play goals in its past nine games (10-for-30), including at least one in four straight games.

What's next

Panthers: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCH, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Wild: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN)