"We stayed with our gameplan the whole game," said forward Patric Hornqvist, who led the charge on offense with two goals. "They came out hot in the first period and I thought it was pretty even, but then we took over. It was nothing fancy out there. It was hard work and being on the right side of pucks."
On an early power play, Hornqvist opened the scoring for the Panthers when he swept a loose puck on the doorstep past Jacob Markstrom to make it 1-0 just 5:58 into the first period. But only 1:05 later, the Flames struck back when Johnny Gaudreau split the defense and scored on a breakaway to make it 1-1.
Briefly putting the Flames up 2-1, Blake Coleman took a pass from Mikael Backlund, skated around the net and banked a shot off Sergei Bobrovsky at 10:04. Answering for the Panthers, Gustav Forsling then fired a shot that bounced off Anthony Duclair before sailing into the net to make it a 2-2 game at 13:01.
Putting the Cats back on top, Joe Thornton tipped in a shot on the power play to make it 3-2 at 18:51.
"The first 20 [minutes] were kind of even, but after that we took over the game and did the right things," Hornqvist said of the team's relentless push after falling behind early. "Bob came up big for us when we needed it, and we got big goals at big moments. When we do that, it's hard to beat us."
Like Hornqvist said, the Panthers really took control of the game starting in the second period.
Leading 35-21 in shot attempts and 20-13 in scoring chances during the middle frame, the Panthers pelted the opposing net for almost 20 minutes until Ryan Lomberg finally broke through when he sent a shot under Markstrom's pads from the right circle to make it 4-2 with 16.7 seconds left on the clock.
Helping keep that growing momentum firmly in Florida's favor, Bobrovsky, who was named the game's third start after finishing with 47 saves, turned aside all 16 shots that he faced during the second period.
"I loved our second period," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said. "I know we got a little loose here and a couple guys snuck behind us in a change, but I really thought we ramped it up another notch. We were rolling and had line after line, wave after wave, of pace. We did a lot of good things."
Finding the back of the net once again in the third period, Hornqvist pocketed another goal when he picked off a clearing attempt in the offensive zone and, with Eetu Luostarinen using his body to clear some space on the ice, rifled a shot from the right circle into the cage to give the Cats a 5-2 lead at 5:47.
Locking in the win, Lucas Carlsson then wired home a shot to make it 6-2 at 13:04.