Jumping out to a 2-0 lead, the Hurricanes found success on both sides of special teams in the first period. After Stefan Noesen buried a rebound on the power play to make it 1-0 at 12:15, Derek Stepan wired a top-shelf snipe over Sergei Bobrovsky's glove for a shorthanded goal to make it 2-0 at 15:50.
Continuing to capitalize on their secondary chances, the Hurricanes extended their lead to 3-0 when Justin Robidas cashed in on a rebound at 2:32 of the second period. Getting the Panthers on the board less than a minute later, Sam Bennett ripped a juicy rebound past Antti Raanta to make it 3-1 at 2:35.
"Preseason goals don't really count, but it's good for the confidence," said Bennett, who netted a career-high 28 goals last season.
Finding the back of the net on the power play for the second time later in the middle frame, Vasiliy Ponomarev finished off a cross-ice feed from Maxime Lajoie to put the Hurricanes on top 4-1 at 6:08.
After stopping 20 of 21 shots over 40 minutes, Raanta was replaced by Zach Sawchenko.
Clogging up the slot with bodies, the Hurricanes padded their advantage to 5-1 when Calvin de Haan's shot from the point was re-directed into the back of the twine by Jack Drury at 8:25 of the third period.
"We've got to learn to just battle harder," Bennett said. "We're all still trying to get back into the rhythm of the game and make plays and stuff, but in games like that when things aren't going and our legs are a little slow we've just got to grind it out and battle harder."
With play at 4-on-4 after Matthew Tkachuk and Ethan Bear were each handed roughing minors after a brief altercation, Brandon Montour added another goal for the Panthers when he collected a pass from Carter Verhaeghe, cut straight toward the net and tucked a backhand shot around Sawchenko to make it 5-2 at 11:27.
Overall, Maurice liked the effort his saw from players after an intentionally exhausting start to training camp.
"We put these guys under considerable duress on purpose," Maurice said. "From Day 1, heavy days every day. Off day, coming off getting in at 4 p.m., this isn't an excuse -- it's by design. We went heavy yesterday, and they're in [the gym] lifting now and they've got nothing in the tank. The connections weren't happening and the speed wasn't where it's going to get to, but the drivers of our team played hard in an exhibition game when they were tired. I'm not saying they were good. That's not the point. There's some guys out there where the exhibition game isn't going to change their life one way or the other, and they stilled played hard."
The Cats will continue their preseason with a rematch against the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Saturday.
NOTES
- Brandon Montour led all Florida skaters with four shots on goal.
- With an assist tonight, Aleksander Barkov leads all Panthers with three points (one goal, two assists) in the preseason.
- Aaron Ekblad led Florida in time on ice (23:28).
- Per NaturalStatTrick.com, Eetu Luostarinen led the Panthers with a 80.0 CF% at 5-on-5.
