RECAP: Panthers 6, Hurricanes 3

RALEIGH, NC – Goals were on sale this Black Friday.

Lighting the lamp three times during a thrilling third period, the Florida Panthers clawed their way to a 6-3 win over the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Friday.

Improving to 14-9-1, the Panthers now find themselves back atop the Atlantic Division.

Getting off to a great start in a tough building on the road, Jesper Boqvist beat Spencer Martin with a backhand from the top of the circle to put the Panthers up 1-0 just 2:26 into the first period.

"It's extremely important and a 3-1 lead on the road is nice," said Aaron Ekblad on the quick start. "They got a few, but we didn't waiver in our confidence."

Always a big deal to break the ice, the Panthers are 9-3-0 when scoring the first this season.

Countering on the power play at 5:42, Seth Jarvis found himself one-on-one with Sergei Bobrovsky and evened the score with a backhand to make it 1-1.

Keeping the excitement up early in the period, Aleksander Barkov intercepted a pass and found Sam Reinhart for a wrist shot to make it 2-1 with his league-leading 18^th goal of the season at 9:05.

Per NHL Stats, Reinhart, who scored 57 goals last season, joined Hall of Famer Pavel Bure as the only two players in Panthers history to score at least 11 goals in one month on multiple occasions.

Turning the swag on, Cater Verhaeghe went coast to coast, avoiding a hit from Sebastian Aho before ripping a shot by Martin to make it 3-1 at 11:21.

"Chucky (Matthew Tkachuk) hit me and I had a lot of speed going in," said Verhaeghe. "I just tried to get a shot through."

Getting into some penalty trouble, the Panthers found themselves with extended disadvantages of 4-on-3 and 5-on-3, respectively, in the closing minutes of the period.

Staying calm, cool, and collected, the penalty kill denied the Hurricanes of inching closer, stopping Carolina’s three power play opportunities after they were successful on the first.

Not an easy task, the Hurricanes rank seventh in the NHL on the power play at 27.8%.

Striking first in the second period, Sean Walker brought the Hurricanes within one, making it 3-2 with a long-range wrist shot at 6:24.

A back-and-forth period of skating, Eric Robinson evened the score at 3-3 at 17:18 on a shot that deflected over Bobrovsky.

Retaking the lead for the Panthers in the third with his third goal of the season, A.J. Greer ripped a quick wrister by Martin to make it 4-3 at 4:58.

Finding an insurance goal despite being on the penalty kill, Anton Lundell, who missed Wednesday’s win over Toronto after taking a puck to the face on Monday, followed up on a shot from Ekblad and buried the rebound off the rush to make it 5-3 at 9:08.

Lethal even when down a man, the Panthers lead the NHL with seven shorthanded goals.

"They pick the right time to go," said head coach Paul Maurice on the success of the penalty kill.

With seven seconds left in regulation, Sam Bennett made it 6-3 with an empty-net goal.

Looking to stretch their winning streak to three games, the Panthers will close out their home-and-home with the Hurricanes with a rematch on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena at 4 p.m. ET.

THEY SAID IT

“What our hope and expectation is that Aaron (Ekblad) is going to become that complete all around two-way defenseman that when we get up the ice, you can score points, you can run a power play, but he’ll play against the other team’s best.” – Paul Maurice on Aaron Ekblad’s style of play

“I think for a lot of teams it does, but I think over the last couple of years we have a lot of experience with that.” – Carter Verhaeghe on the team not getting rattled by back-and-forth games

CATS STATS

• The Panthers scored three goals on six shots in the first period
• Aaron Ekblad became the second player in team history to play in 700 games.
• Sergei Bobrovsky earned the 407th win of his career to move into a tie with Glenn Hall for 12th on the NHL’s all-time list.
• Aleksander Barkov won 57.1% of his faceoffs.
• Sam Reinhart had a team-high five hits.
• The Panthers led 12-5 in scoring chances in the third period.

WHAT’S NEXT?

It’ll be round two with the Hurricanes.

In the second game of a home-and-home, the Panthers will go to battle with Carolina on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena at 4 p.m. ET.

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