RECAP: Reinhart, Bobrovsky come up big as Panthers win in New Jersey

Sam Reinhart scored a pair of goals and Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves as the Florida Panthers opened up their two-game road trip with a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on Saturday.
"We needed an effort like that," Reinhart said. "It's games like that that kind of get the ball rolling and momentum going in the right direction. Hopefully we can build off that."

Lighting the lamp for the third straight game, Reinhart opened the scoring on the power play to make it 1-0 at 8:54 of the first period. Initially, the goal appeared to belong to Matthew Tkachuk, but scorers deemed Reinhart's attempted pass went off a defender before arriving to Tkachuk.
"Really important for those guys to get one early," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "It settled them right down."
With 2.1 seconds left on the clock in the first period, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov suffered a lower-body injury during a faceoff with Devils captain Nico Hischier and did not return to the game.
"He's going to have to get looked at tomorrow before we know," Maurice said of Barkov's status.
Putting a bow on a great shift for the fourth line, Gustav Forsling took a pass from Zac Dalpe and snapped a blistering shot from near the top of the right circle past Akira Schmid's glove and into the back of the twine to increase the lead to 2-0 at 7:49 of the second period.
At 11:27, the Devils got on the board when Bobrovsky was upended in the crease and John Marino took advantage by firing a shot into the suddenly abandoned cage to make it 2-1.
The Panthers challenged the goal for goaltender interference, but after further review the score was upheld after it was deemed, per the NHL Situation Room, that "it was the actions of Eric Staal's stick" that caused Devils forward Dawson Mercer to make contact with Bobrovsky.
Not letting that sequence snowball into something bigger, the Panthers regained their two-goal lead when Reinhart tipped a point shot from Aaron Ekblad into the cage to make it 3-1 at 19:19.

"I was really proud of the way that they fought hard," Maurice said. "It starts with our goaltender tonight because he had some work to do. They missed the net on some chances, but he was clear and he was close there. He was really good. ... I liked our first period a lot. I thought we had a good template for how we wanted to play the game, and then we got in a little trouble. After that, it was just will -- grind, block shots, spit it out, spit it in, and get to the net."
Getting the Devils back to within striking distance, Michael McLeod found Erik Haula in the low slot with a pass from behind the net for a goal to make it 3-2 at 16:30. But with 1:11 left on the clock in regulation, Grigori Denisenko chipped the puck up the ice to Carter Verhaeghe, who then fired his team-leading 16th goal of the season into the empty net to lock down the 4-2 win.
"Over the course of the regular season there's different circumstances and different hurdles," said Bobrovsky, who made his sixth straight start for the Panthers. "I thought guys did a great job to compete and to fight in any circumstances. That's a big piece going forward. We'll keep building our chemistry and our team."

KEY QUOTES

"I feel good. I've got some rhythm, played some hockey. That's good for me. I like to play. I like to be there with the teammates and compete for the points because we need points right now." - Sergei Bobrovsky on his performance in New Jersey
"I thought we had really good composure when they had control of the puck. We burnt an awful lot of time just by positioning. They moved it around a lot at the top looking for a lane, but we were quick. We cleared the net-front, and then the goalie's always the most-important part." - Paul Maurice on Florida's penalty kill
"It's tough when our captain goes down. It's those situations in the game when you want him out there. I think tonight it's just a matter of not trying to do too much. We had a lot of guys fill in that role and playing simple out there, and that led to our success." - Sam Reinhart on players stepping up after Aleksander Barkov's injury

CATS NOTES

• Eetu Luostarinen owned a team-high 61.94 CF% at 5-on-5, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
  - Sergei Bobrovsky made six high-danger saves.
  - Ryan Lomberg recorded a team-high five hits.
  - Sam Bennett won a team-high 10 faceoffs.
  - The Panthers led 29-12 in hits.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (15-13-4) will wrap up their two-game road trip with a battle against the Boston Bruins (24-4-2) at TD Garden on Monday at 7 p.m. ET.