RECAP: Reinhart scores twice as Panthers wrap up trip with win in Anaheim

Talk about the perfect present!
Celebrating his 27th birthday, Sam Reinhart scored his first and second goals of the season to lead the Florida Panthers to a 5-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Sunday.
Improving to 7-5-1, the Panthers finished their four-game road trip with a 2-2-0 record.
"It's huge," Reinhart said of the win. "Like I said, especially at the end going home with a long travel day tomorrow, you want to keep that mood positive and up. It's a nice way to finish it."

On the power play in the first period, Carter Verhaeghe opened up the scoring for the Panthers when he deflected a point shot from Brandon Montour past John Gibson to make it 1-0 at 11:31.
Leading the Panthers with eight goals, Verhaeghe's stick has been on fire as of late. Over his last five games, he's found the back of the net six times, including a pair of multi-goal contests.
After assisting on Verhaeghe's goal, Montour then lit the lamp himself when he fired a long shot on net that slipped past Gibson to push Florida's advantage to 2-0 at 2:51 of the second period.
"With Aaron (Ekblad) going down, Monty's stepped up defensively, too," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Montour, who matched a career-high with four points in the win. "He and (Gustav) Forsling play against the other team's best. I think he's building a patience into his game to find the right time to jump in and the right time to get active. He'll find his points increase doing it that way."
Getting the game back to even in the blink of an eye, the Ducks scored twice within a span of 27 seconds. After Adam Henrique re-directed a shot past Spencer Knight to cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 8-minute mark, Ryan Strome deposited a feed from Kevin Shattenkirk to make it 2-2 at 8:27.
"We had a couple bad shifts, a couple bad decisions, and they were able to score two goals," Panthers forward Anton Lundell said. "Sometimes it happens. It's a learning process. I'm happy that we were able to play good as a team and bounce back."
Picking the perfect time to score his first goal of the season, Reinhart -- who netted the deciding shootout goal in Thursday's win at San Jose -- put the Panthers back on top when he lifted a shot over a pile of bodies and into the net from in close to make it 3-2 at 2:55 of the third period.

With the action at 4-on-4 a little over five minutes later, Sam Bennett padded the lead for the Panthers when he powered home a centering feed from Eetu Luostarinen to make it 4-2 at 8:10.
"It was good," Bennett said of the win. "It was a gutsy effort. That's a tough game coming off a back-to-back. I thought that we played a pretty solid game. That was a big win for our team."
That goal would prove to be important as the Ducks managed to pull within a goal when Isac Lundestrom scored on a penalty shot to cut Anaheim's deficit to 4-3 with 1:14 left in regulation.
Stomping out any would-be comeback attempt for the Ducks, Reinhart officially put the game -- and most fans back on the East Coast -- to bed when he potted an empty-net goal with just a second or two remaining on the clock to put the Panthers up 5-3 and lock in a big two points.
Knight finished with 32 saves, while Gibson made 43.
"He's had so many chances to score, and it just didn't seem to go for him," Maurice said of Reinhart. "His game has been right. Sometimes it's going back to something familiar, and he and Lundell are back together. They just know how to play off each other. He gets some confidence and a couple goals on his birthday."

KEY QUOTES

"It's always nice coming back here. The team has changed drastically since I've been here. There's only a handful of old teammates. It's always nice to play in front of these guys and play against my buds." - Brandon Montour on playing against his former team in Anaheim.
"Today it felt like we started really good, and then the second period was a little hard. They scored two goals and got into the game. We just needed to play our own game and get better in the third."- Anton Lundell on the resilience of the Panthers.
"The bench was good. They were wired into the game and we came out moving the right way. They prepared themselves well today. They were ready to go." - Paul Maurice on the energy he saw from his players.
"It's huge for our confidence. We know we're going to get goals, but sometimes when you're not getting them it can get a little bit frustrating. It's definitely big for our group to get a couple tonight." - Sam Bennett on the Panthers potting a pair of goals on the power play.

CATS NOTES

• Spencer Knight is 2-0-0 with a .942 save percentage in his career against Anaheim.
  - Anton Lundell recorded his second multi-point game of the season.
  - Brandon Montour's four points matched the most ever by a Panthers defenseman in a game.
  - Florida led 72-48 in shot attempts at 5-on-5, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
  - Carter Verhaeghe has scored in each of the past three games.
  - With an assist, Marc Staal recorded his first point as a Panther.
  - Sam Reinhart registered a game-high seven shots on goal.
  - Aleksander Barkov went 16-for-24 (66.7%) in the faceoff circle.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (7-5-1) will finally return to Sunrise to kick off a five-game homestand with a matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes (8-3-1) at FLA Live Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.
For tickets, click
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