RECAP: Panthers 4, Hurricanes 2 (Preseason)

SUNRISE, Fla. – Gerry Mayhew sent a rebound into the back of the net with 1:35 left on the clock to lead the Panthers to a 4-2 win over the Hurricanes at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.

With the win, Florida improved to 3-1-0 in the preseason.

“It was a good pass off the pads,” Mayhew said. “We work on that in practice.”

Making his preseason debut, Anthony Stolarz came up with the biggest play of a scoreless first period. With the Panthers on the power play, Brendan Perlini managed to spring himself free for a shorthanded breakaway, but was stopped in his tracks by a lunging left-pad save from Stolarz.

A veteran of 81 career NHL games, Stolarz went 5-6-0 with Anaheim in 2022-23.

“The breakaway, and then awful quiet,” head coach Paul Maurice said of his goaltender's workload in the opening 20 minutes. “Not a lot of work [early], so you get a little chilly in there. Then rebounds in front of the net, right? He had to make the save and then come over and find it. He was good. He’s a big man. He gets in front of it.”

Finally breaking through for the Panthers, Samoskevich, who scored a pair of goals in Monday’s doubleheader against the Predators, got behind Carolina’s defense, collected a pass from Josh Mahura and beat Pyotr Kochetkov with a slick deke to make it 1-0 at 16:19 of the second period.

“I think he’s built,” Maurice said Samoskevich, a first-round draft pick in 2021. “He’s going to be one of those guys that as the talent level increases he’ll probably be able to do a bit more with the puck, but he’s also going to get more challenged without the puck. That’ll be that growth curve that we’re looking for. He’s a very, very skilled young man.”

Showing off tremendous speed and agility for a player than measures up at 6-foot-4 and 206 pounds, Steven Lorentz doubled the lead for the Panthers in the third period when he sprung himself free on a breakaway with a poke-check and scored shorthanded to make it 2-0 at 2:29.

“Sometimes I can get up to speed,” Lorentz laughed. “I’m very comfortable on the penalty kill. The systems here are just the way I like to play. It’s aggressive and in-your-face. I just saw a guy standing still on the wall. We’re told to jump pucks and get there as quick as possible.”

As a former Hurricane, Lorentz said he knew exactly where to shoot on Kochetkov.

“I’m pretty familiar with some of those guys,” said Lorentz, who suited up in over 100 games with Carolina from 2020-2022. “Kind of knew what the goalie might do. He’s a buddy of mine. I was able to just get a quick wrister off and fortunate that it went in. I’m happy with the game.”

But just 34 seconds later, Michael Bunting cut Carolina’s deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal.

Back on the power play in the waning minutes of regulation, Perlini evened things up for the Hurricanes with a laser of a shot to make it 2-2 at 18:01. Saving the day just 24 seconds later, Mayhew, who was in the box on Perlini’s goal, beat Kochetkov on a rebound to put the Panthers back up 3-2 at 18:25.

At 18:48, Lucas Carlsson put the game away with an empty-net goal that made it 4-2.

Sharp in his first start as a Panther, Stolarz finished with 28 saves.

“It felt really nice,” the 29-year-old veteran netminder said. “Been a while. I think the end of February was my last game. Kind of been champing at the bit to get started here and get into some game action. That’s kind of the reason you rehab all summer, for this opportunity right here. A lot of credit to the guys.”

CATS QUOTES

“We’re just doing the little things right, getting the pucks in. Samoskevich is a special player. He makes plays. Lorentz, same thing with him. We had some chemistry. It was a good night for us.” – Mayhew on playing on a line with Samoskevich and Lorentz

“I’m getting more and more up to speed and comfortable with the systems. A great job by the guys just building each other’s confidence. It’s a new system for a lot of guys, but we’re getting more and more comfortable. That just makes it easy going into the regular season.” – Lorentz on seeing a lot of action in the preseason

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers are heading north!

As part of this year’s Kraft Hockeyville, the Panthers will battle the Senators in a preseason neutral-site doubleheader at Centre 200 in Sydney, Nova Scotia on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.

The game will be available to watch on NHL Network in the U.S.