RECAP: Devils 6, Panthers 2

SUNRISE, Fla. – It was a tale of special teams.

Having an off night on the power play and penalty kill, the Florida Panthers suffered their second straight loss to the New Jersey Devils, falling by a score of 6-2 at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday.

The Panthers went 0-for-5 on the power play, while the Devils went 3-for-5 with the extra attacker.

Even with the loss, the Panthers remain atop the Atlantic Division at 11-5-2.

“Sometimes it goes like that,” said captain Aleksander Barkov. “They played really well and had a good plan. They got a lot of pucks to the net and have some skilled guys who can score. We gave them a little too many chances.”

With the Panthers finding themselves behind the eight ball early for the second straight game, Stefan Noesen sent a rebound past Sergie Bobrovsky to make it 1-0 at 10:01 of the first period.

Responding for the Panthers, Jesper Boqvist took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk and deked his way right past Dougie Hamilton before putting a move on Jake Allen and scoring to make it 1-1 at 12:13.

With each team going on the man-advantage in the closing minutes of the first period, the Panthers had opportunities to break the tie but were unable to sneak a go-ahead goal past Allen.

On the flip side, the Devils ended the period by capitalizing on the power play when Jesper Bratt sent the puck into the top corner of the net with 1.4 seconds left on the clock to make it 2-1.

Evening the score for the Panthers at 2-2 at 4:45 of the second period was – who else? -- the league’s leading goal scorer, Sam Reinhart.

With a wicked snipe from the dot, the two-way terror increased his ever-growing goal total to 13 and also extended his point streak to nine games.

During the nine-game point steak, Reinhart has notched 13 points (8 goals, 5 assists).

Assisting on the goal, Aleksander Barkov extended his assist streak to seven games, marking the second time he’s pieced together a streak that long in his career, per NHL Stats.

Putting the Devils up 3-2 on the power play, Jack Hughes snuck the puck past the goal line after throwing it into a heap of chaos around the crease at 5:56.

Similar to the end of the first period, the Devils made the Panthers pay on the power play – which came as the result of an uncalled embellishment on Hughes – late in the second.

“We need to get those killed,” said head coach Paul Maurice. “They move the puck around and have a good power play.”

With 10 seconds left in the period, Noesen netted his second goal of the game to make it 4-2.

Giving the Devils insurance in the third period, Bratt made it 5-2 with his second of the contest at 3:50.

A chippy game that got feistier every period, Jonah Gadjovich and Kurtis MacDermid got the fans on their feet with a heavyweight bout midway through the period.

Just as it was during his fight against Breden Dillon last game, Gadjovich got the takedown.

Completing his hat trick, Bratt hit the empty net at 14:48 to give the Devils a 6-2 win in Sunrise.

Still 7-2-0 over their last nine games, the Panthers aren’t sweating their back-to-back losses.

“We know who’s coming into town, the best team in the league right now playing unbelievable hockey,” Barkov said of the team’s upcoming tilt with the Winnipeg Jets. “We got to be ready right away.”

THEY SAID IT

“You got to deal with it. We’re not going to let it go, but you don’t put a weight on it that should carry.” – Paul Maurice on handling the loss

“There was little bits from last game, some of the same tendencies. It’s something we have to watch and learn from.” – Jesper Boqvist on learning from the losses to New Jersey

CATS STATS

• Sam Reinhart has scored 70 regular-season goals since the start of 2023-24.
• The Panthers led 46-39 in 5-on-5 shot attempts, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
• Aleksander Barkov won 60% of his faceoffs.
• J. Greer led the Panthers with six hits.
• Florida controlled 70.83% of 5-on-5 shot attempts when Uvis Balinskis was deployed.

WHAT’S NEXT?

It’s going to be two of the two of the best doing battle this weekend.

In the first game of a home-and-home, the Panthers will try to take down the top team in the NHL when they clash with the 15-2-0 Winnipeg Jets at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click HERE.