RECAP: Panthers can't recover from early deficit in loss to Predators

SUNRISE, Fla. --After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, the Florida Panthers made a strong push but couldn't claw their way back in an eventual 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators at FLA Live Arena on Thursday.
Falling to 30-27-6, Florida sits four points out of a playoff spot at the time of this writing.
"Guys care in this room," Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg said. "We want to win every game, especially at this time of year when we're pushing for a spot. I don't know if it's frustration, but we all want to win. We're definitely upset with the result."

On the power play in the first period, the Predators jumped out to an early lead when Matt Duchene finished off a give-and-go with Luke Evangelista by one-timing the puck past a screened Sergei Bobrovsky from the right circle to put the Panthers behind 1-0 at 13:40.
Making a dent on the scoresheet in his debut with Nashville, John Leonard doubled the lead when he took a pass from Roman Josi and buried a backhand shot to make it 2-0 at 19:49.
"Stubborn with the puck with how the game was going to be played," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "It was going to be a dump game where you had to go in and get it. The second period was an example of the way that game needed to be played. We wanted to do things with the puck that you couldn't."
Cutting into the deficit for the Panthers in the second period, Lomberg took a nice stretch pass from Radko Gudas before sending the puck around a sprawled-out Predators defenseman right onto the stick of Brandon Montour for a goal from the doorstep to make it 2-1 at 3:21.

Holding onto the puck for the majority of the second and third periods, the Panthers couldn't find the game-tying goal they needed despite leading the Predators 24-11 in shots on goal, 57-22 in shot attempts and 18-3 in high-danger shot attempts over the final 40 minutes.
And even though Kevin Lankinen turned aside 30 of 31 shots in Nashville's net, the Panthers feel they could've put more pressure on after having 28 shots blocked and missing 23 others.
In Florida's net, Bobrovsky made 21 saves.
"We've just go to find ways to pull together for 60 minutes," Montour said. "You saw the second and third there where we took control of the game. It's just finding ways to get the puck to the net and extra goals."

CATS QUOTES

"I thought it was there. We obviously had a good push at the end. You can't be playing behind like that in games like this. To come out the way we did, it's disappointing." - Ryan Lomberg
"The NHL's tough. The worst team and the best team on any given night can beat each other. It's a difficult league. Everybody's getting paid the same amount and trying to win hockey games. We have to be a desperate team every night and obviously a game like that hurts us."- Brandon Montour

CATS NOTES

• Brandon Montour matched his career-high with his 11th goal of the season.
  - Carter Verhaeghe led the Panthers with four hits.
  - Radko Gudas blocked a team-high two shots on goal.
  - Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 21 of 22 shots at even strength.
  - Florida led 32-7 in shot attempts when Anton Lundell was deployed at 5-on-5.
  - The Panthers led 3.73-2.49 in expected goals.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (30-27-6) will continue their homestand with a crucial matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins (31-21-9) at FLA Live Arena on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.
For tickets, click
HERE
.
\All advanced statistics courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.com*