5 Takeaways: Panthers Can't Hold Lead in Game 2 Loss to Islanders

The Florida Panthers suddenly find themselves on the the brink of an early elimination after suffering a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers on Tuesday afternoon at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

During the game, the Panthers held a one-goal lead on two separate occasions.

"If you're up a goal during a game, it's not over until it's over," said Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle, who posted two assists in the loss. "There's momentum swings. There's times in the game when you can be up or down.

"But it's all what matters at the end of the 60 [minutes]. We didn't get the result we wanted. We've got to be pissed off and ready to come tomorrow and play our best game."

Mike Hoffman gave the Panthers an early lead in Game 2 when he took a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau and threaded shot through heavy traffic past Semyon Varlamov and into the back of the twine to make it 1-0 at 11:16 of the first period.

In the second period, the Islanders struck back and evened things up when Matt Martin collected a between-the-legs pass from Tom Kuhnhackl just outside the blue paint and sent a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky to make it a 1-1 game at 6:12.

Less than two minutes later, however, the Panthers regained the lead when Aleksander Barkov picked a corner on the power play to make it 2-1 at 7:54.

"I thought we were in good shape right then," Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville said of the goal. "We responded well after [Martin's] goal."

Unfortunately, discipline came back to bite the Panthers after Barkov's go-ahead goal. Sent to the power play, the Islanders quickly made it 2-2 when Ryan Pulock blasted home a heavy one-timer on the man advantage at 13:48 of the second.

Bobrovsky made 30 saves for Florida, while Varlamov made 25 for New York.

Later in the second, Jordan Eberle gave New York its first lead when he buried a wrist shot to make it 3-2 at 16:27. Then, at 10:29 of the third, he essentially put the game away with a power-play goal that put the Panthers in a tough 4-2 hole.

The Islanders finished the game 2-for-7 against the Panthers on the power play.

"Obviously penalties cost us in this game, too," Barkov said. "We can't really take so many penalties as we did today… It gives the momentum to them. They get to play on the power play and put their best players on the ice. We've got to play a lot better, too."

Facing elimination, the Panthers will look to stay alive and make it a 2-1 series when they close out a back-to-back set with New York at noon on Wednesday.

"We didn't bring our best today," Barkov said. "Tomorrow is a new chance. We've got to win that game. We have to have a mindset going into that game and play our best game of the series. Play smarter than we've been the last three games."

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's loss in Toronto…

1. HOT START

Hoffman helped the Panthers get off to a hot start.

Just a few seconds after the power play expired, Hoffman collected a pass from Huberdeau and ripped a wrist shot from the just beyond the circles that whizzed through traffic and past Varlamov to put Florida up 1-0 at 11:16 of the first period.

During the regular season, Hoffman ranked third on the Panthers with 59 points, including a team-leading 29 goals. The 30-year-old forward also led the team in shots (214) and was tied with Evgenii Dadonov for most power-play goals (11).

In Game 2, Hoffman tied for the lead among Florida's forward with three shots.

2. PICKING HIS SPOT

After drawing a penalty, Barkov reaped the rewards.

With the Panthers on the power play, Barkov picked a corner, sending a shot right over the shoulder of Varlamov, who was blinded by a perfect screen from Huberdeau, and into the cage to put Florida up 2-1 at 7:54 of the second period.

Barkov finished second on Florida with 62 points (20 goals, 42 assists) during the regular season. Additionally, the 24-year-old captain also led the club's forwards in average ice time (20:01) and won a career-best 54.28 percent of his faceoffs.

In Game 2, Barkov went a stellar 16-for-25 (64 percent) in the faceoff circle.

3. PENALTY PROBLEMS

For the second straight game, the Panther's weren't happy with how much time they spent in the penalty box.

After giving up three power plays in Game 1, the Panthers more than doubled that number in Game 2, as they found themselves shorthanded seven times.

"We took some careless penalties in today's game that you can't have," Quenneville said.

That being said, the penalty kill did come up big this afternoon, even if New York did net a pair of goals on the man advantage. During the 10:06 that Florida spent shorthanded, the team's killers allowed the Islanders to fire just five shots on net.

"Obviously our kill has been trying hard and working their hardest," Yandle said. "But for us, I think, to be successful, we've just got to stay out of the box."

Going into Game 3, Barkov said the team will need to be "better with our sticks."

"Too may tripping and high-sticking penalties, in my opinion," Barkov said.

4. KEEPER SLOTS IN

Brady Keeper made his NHL playoff debut this afternoon.

Paired with veteran Anton Stralman on the blue line, the 24-year-old defenseman notched two hits and two blocked shots while skating 13:13 against the Islanders.

"I thought he had a good game today," Quenneville said of Keeper, the first the first member of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation to make it to the NHL. "I thought he had an excellent game against Tampa [in last week's exhibition], and I thought he had a real good training camp. I think that's why he earned his spot."

After appearing in one game with Florida during the 2018-19 campaign, Keeper tallied six goals, 12 assists and 118 penalty minutes in 61 AHL games this year.

5. BACK AGAINST THE WALL

The Panthers know they're facing an uphill battle.

That being said, they're certainly up to the challenge.

Looking to become just the second team in NHL history to ever claw back and win a best-of-five series after falling behind 2-0, the Panthers will try to flip the script on New York when they hit the ice for Game 3 on Wednesday afternoon.

"We have the talent to do it," Hoffman said. "[Bobrovsky] has been playing well. ... It's up to us guys up front to put the puck in the net and we have a ton of guys who can do so."

Quenneville said it will be important to take a game-by-game approach.

"You don't look ahead," Quenneville said. "That's the bottom line going into tomorrow's game. Obviously we should all feel disappointed and accept that this isn't what we're all about. We want to make sure we're ready to do something about it tomorrow."