RECAP: Panthers' rally falls short in loss to Kings

SUNRISE, Fla. --After falling into an early hole, the Florida Panthers made a strong second-half push but came up just short in a 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at FLA Live Arena on Friday.
With the loss, Florida now sits at 23-22-6 on the season.
"It's what we were afraid of," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "You come off the road like that and you're sluggish in the first. You've probably got to keep that thing at 2-0 to give yourself a chance, but even after that when we scored our first goal it was pretty tilted."

A point-per-game player in his career against the Panthers, Anze Kopitar opened the scoring for the Kings when he drove straight down the slot, collected a centering feed from Quinton Byfield and backhanded the puck past Alex Lyon to make it 1-0 at 13:25 of the first period.
Despite being on the penalty kill, the Kings doubled their lead when Adian Kempe buried a cross-slot feed from Blake Lizotte on a 2-on-1 rush for a shorthanded goal to make it 2-0 at 17:58.
Just before the midway point of the second period, the Panthers suffered a big scare when Gustav Forsling crashed legs-first into the end boards while in a race for the puck. Visibly in pain, the top-pairing defenseman was helped off the ice, but did return later in the contest.
On the incident, Kings forward Alex Turcotte was assessed a major penalty for boarding.
With Aaron Ekblad also earning a roughing penalty, the two teams played two minutes of 4-on-4 before the Panthers received a three-minute power play. But just as 4-on-4 play expired, Mikey Anderson deposited a centering feed from Viktor Arvidsson to put Los Angeles up 3-0 at 9:58.
Getting the Panthers on the board, Ryan Lomberg pounced on a loose puck in the slot and backhanded the puck over Pheonix Copley's glove and into the net to make it 3-1 at 13:23.
Less than three minutes after Lomberg's goal, the Panthers kept their foot on the gas and made it a one-goal game when Brandon Montour walked the puck down from the point into the left circle before beating Copley with a blistering slap shot to suddenly make it 3-2 at 16:19.

"We made a good push," Lomberg said. "At the same point, it's tough to lose a game like that. It's the time of the year where we've gotta start getting these points, so a big one tomorrow."
In the third period, the Panthers continued to push in search of the game-tying goal. But with 1:02 left on the clock, Mat Roy buried a long empty-netter to put the Kings up 4-2. Not going down without a fight, Carter Verhaeghe scored to cut the deficit to 4-3 with 33.4 seconds left.
Over the second and third periods, Florida led 32-15 in scoring chances.
"That's what we've been doing this year," Montour said. "We get down early and we take it to them after that. You don't want to be in a position where you've got to do that. You've got to play the way that we played in the second and the third right from the start."

CATS QUOTES

"We'll have to have a good look at him tomorrow. I'm not 100% sure he's playing." - Paul Maurice on Gustav Forsling
"These points are huge, and we just lost another two. We've got a tough game tomorrow and we've got to be ready." - Brandon Montour
"We didn't start the way we wanted to. We came alive there in the second and made a good push, but we've got to get the wins here." - Ryan Lomberg

CATS NOTES

• Brandon Montour's eight-game point streak in the longest by a D-man in franchise history.
  - Carter Verhaeghe scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season.
  - Matthew Tkachuk recorded a team-high seven shots on goal.
  - Radko Gudas led the Panthers with four blocked shots.
  - Aleksander Barkov won 65% of his faceoffs.
  - Josh Mahura owned a team-best 76.67 CF% at 5-on-5, per NaturalStatTrick.com.

WHAT'S NEXT?

In their final game before the All-Star break, the Panthers (23-22-6) will close out their back-to-back with a battle against the Boston Bruins (38-6-4) at FLA Live Arena on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.