CHICAGO – The Florida Panthers fell into an early hole and unfortunately were unable to dig their way out during a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Saturday.
Sitting at 5-4-1 in the standings, the Panthers finished their three-game road trip 1-1-1.
“We didn’t make it easy on ourselves tonight,” defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “We came out pretty slow and gave away some goals, I feel like. That’s not our style. I think we responded a little bit better in the second and built our game up a little bit, too. Proud of the guys for that, but at the same time we have to know we have to come out better.”
Earning an early power play after a questionable interference call, the Blackhawks opened the scoring when Nick Foligno pounced on a loose puck in the slot after a blocked shot by the Panthers and quickly fired it past Anthony Stolarz to make it 1-0 at 6:25 of the first period.
With the action at 4-on-4 after the Panthers had a power play of their own negated by another penalty, Nikita Zaitsev found some open ice, took a pass from Philipp Kurashev and ripped a fiery shot over Stolarz’s blocker and into the top left corner of the cage to make it 2-0 at 9:21.
Not taking their foot off the gas, the Blackhawks continued to pile on the Panthers when Taylor Hall, who returned to the lineup after missing three games due to an injury, flew into the zone and fired a shot from the left circle that squeaked through Stolarz’s five-hole to make it 3-0 at 12:39.
After having several days to chew on an 8-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday, the Blackhawks clearly wanted to make a statement in the first period against the Panthers.
“We had a tough first," head coach Paul Maurice said. "We’ll play 246 periods, hoping that one was our worst. Give [the Blackhawks] credit. They skated hard. They had a tough game the night before. I think it got them focused. Then it was almost the most dominant two periods that we’ve had after.”
Adding to Chicago’s lead in the second period, rookie star Connor Bedard, the top pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, chased down a dribbling puck after it bounced over the stick of a Panthers defender and fired a shot from the left circle into the far side of the net to make it 4-0 at 5:29.
In search of a spark, the Panthers opted to switch up their lines quite a bit in the second period, including sticking Aleksander Barkov with Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe. As a result, the scoring chances really started to pile up as they started to make a solid push.
After two periods, Florida had 28 scoring chances and 2.06 expected goals.
“I’m not worried about the offense,” Maurice said. “It’s there. I know it is.”
Breaking through, Ekman-Larsson cut into Florida’s deficit in the third period when sent the puck through some heavy traffic and past Petr Mrazek on the power play to make it 4-1 at 6:31. Cutting into the deficit further, Tkachuk tucked in a rebound to make it 4-2 at 12:27.
The goal was Tkachuk’s 500th point in the NHL.
“It doesn’t mean much today, to be quite honest,” said Tkachuk, who always prefers team achievements to personal accolades. “But I’ve played with a lot of great players, so I’m lucky.”
After pulling their goaltender late in regulation, the Panthers nearly made it a one-goal game, but the net seemed to have what felt like a force field around it. With 10 seconds left on the clock, Kurashev stomped any hope of a comeback when he cashed in on the empty net to make it 5-2.
Despite the loss, the Panthers are focusing more on the final 40 minutes rather than the first 20.
“You’re going to have a tough period in this league every once in a while, and we had it,” Maurice said. “But love the way they played after that. We were desperate, determined, strong and dominant.”
THEY SAID IT
“We’re better than we’ve ever been defensively. I won't produce the first period as evidence of that for you, but right now we are better defensively than we’ve ever been. We’re learning how to win and battle in tight games until some of the hands loosen up.” – Paul Maurice
“They came off a loss. We’ve got to be ready for them to come out a little bit harder at home and push back. We didn’t have much of that tonight. I felt like we were looking slow pretty much all over the ice and didn’t create a lot of chances up front.” – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
“Just uncharacteristic. An unfortunate start. The same thing happened here last year, coming in here and they just took it to us right away. When you give up three goals and then four, that’s too hard to come back from. But we were close and had some chances.” – Matthew Tkachuk
CATS STATS
- Matthew and Keith Tkachuk are the eighth father-son duo to each tally 500 points in the NHL.
- The Panthers led 16-8 in high-danger shot attempts at 5-on-5.
- The Panthers had 29 shots blocked by the Blackhawks.
- Florida won 55.8% of its faceoffs.
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson saw a team-high 23:56 of ice time.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Cats are coming home!
With a chance to start a new point streak, the Panthers will look to get back in the win column when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday at 7 p.m. ET.
The first 10,000 fans through the doors will receive a miniature Aleksander Barkov bobblehead.
For tickets, click HERE.
