RECAP: Islanders 4, Panthers 3

SUNRISE, Fla. – Despite racking up 93 shot attempts and 47 scoring chances, the Florida Panthers couldn’t get enough bounces to go their way in a 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

Snapping their point streak at three games, Florida now sits at 14-8-2 in the standings.

“I think they capitalized on their opportunities,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “We had a lot of looks. They kept us to the outside pretty good, but I think we had a lot of looks and chances to score. Their goalie played well and they were opportunistic, for sure.”

With the Panthers rarely relinquishing the puck, the Islanders didn’t register their first shot on goal until the 10-minute mark of the first period. But after earning a power play soon after, New York managed to break the ice when Anders Lee scored on a redirection to make it 1-0 at 12:35.

Prior to that goal, Florida had been on a 26-for-26 run on the penalty kill.

Continuing his scorching start to the season, Sam Reinhart answered for the Panthers when he brilliantly finished off a tic-tac-toe play with Brandon Montour and Evan Rodrigues by roofing a shot into the twine to make it 1-1 with his team-leading 16^th goal of the campaign at 13:41.

After the Panthers came up empty on a few quality looks, the Islanders regained the lead when Pierre Engvall fired a rebound past Anthony Stolarz to make it 2-1 at 4:37 of the second period. Finding another rebound at the net, Simon Holmstrom extended New York’s lead to 3-1 at 9:12.

“They did a good job of being in the lane and blocking a lot of shots,” Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling said. “We tried to get the puck there, but I think they did a good job.”

Getting a goal back for the Panthers, Matthew Tkachuk beat Ilya Sorokin with a wicked far-side snipe from near the top of the right circle to trim the deficit down to 3-2 at 13:14.

“It’s good,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of Tkachuk getting rewarded with a much-deserved goal. “Their line had two [goals]. I think the chemistry is there. It’ll come. I think it’s starting to come. They were really good in Montreal again. I think that line’s coming together and they’ll start scoring.”

In the third period, the Islanders regained their two-goal cushion when Julien Gauthier fired a shot past Stolarz’s glove right after a faceoff win in the offensive zone to make it 4-2 at 3:43.

Setting up shop in front of the net, Verhaeghe sliced the deficit back down to a single goal for the Panthers when he backhanded a loose puck around Sorokin to make 4-3 at 9:36.

From there, the Cats continued to generate chances but couldn’t find the tying goal they needed.

Runner-up for the Vezina Trophy last season, Sorokin finished with 42 saves and 1.37 goals saved above expected.

“I thought we were real good tonight,” Maurice said. “You lose a game, so then you’ll focus on the two or three things. I thought there were some slight puck-movement issues, but if you put up that many shot attempts, I would say we have to do what Carter Verhaeghe did on his goal and get better net-front, but [Sorokin] stood on his head.”

THEY SAID IT

“You come out and you try to control most of your variables. There’s some things we can do better, but we played the same style of game we played in our last three, much better than the fifth game. You’re frustrated tonight, but there won’t be a whole lot there. If we made a mistake, it was in our net. There wasn’t a whole lot there.” – Paul Maurice on tonight’s loss

“We fought back and scored a couple goals. We didn’t give up right until the end. We almost got a couple there. They were good at blocking shots and not letting us get to the net. It was good.” – Carter Verhaeghe and the Panthers pushing right until the end against the Islanders

CATS STATS

- Carter Verhaeghe has lit the lamp in three of his last four games.

- Sam Reinhart recorded his seventh goal on home ice this season.

- The Panthers have still yet to allow more than 35 shots on goal in a game this season.

- Florida led 4.37-2.54 in expected goals, per NaturalStatTrick.com.

- Sam Bennett went 11-for-18 (61.1%) in the faceoff circle.

- The Panthers had 25 shots blocked by the Islanders.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers will have a few days to prepare for their next opponent.

After resting up and regrouping, the Panthers will return to the ice to host the Dallas Stars at Amerant Bank Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.

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