RECAP: Wild 5, Panthers 1

SUNRISE, Fla. – With every loss comes a learning experience.

Falling to the Minnesota Wild 5-1 Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena, the Florida Panthers will be taking some lessons from the loss.

“I think we’re definitely going to go over it and improve on the things we can,” said Sam Bennett, the lone Panthers goal scorer. “The main thing is that our compete level tonight just wasn’t there.”

Despite outshooting Minnesota 9-5 in the first period, it was the Wild that ended the period in control.

Breaking the ice, Kirill Kaprizov connected with Marco Rossi across the seam for a tap-in goal to put the Wild up 1-0 at 11:40.

Quickly after, at 12:02, Minnesota added another as Marcus Johansson found the back of the net on a one-timer from Matt Boldy to make it 2-0.

After a light-whistled first period, the Wild got the first opportunity on the power play less than a minute into the second period.

Extending their lead, Boldy made it 3-0 on a deflection at 2:40.

Getting on the Panthers on the board, Carter Verhaeghe found Bennett for a backdoor tap-in at 11:19 to cut the deficit to 3-1.

The goal was Bennett’s fifth of the year and marked his second straight game lighting the lamp.

Back in the lineup after missing the last five games, Matthew Tkachuk had the secondary assist.

“Chucky’s a massive part of our team,” Bennett said. “He’s a leader. He does all the things in this league that superstars do. Obviously, it was great to have him back.”

Answering back with a pair of goals to stomp out Florida’s comeback attempt, Mats Zuccarello (13:58) and Joel Erikkson Ek (16:05) each added to their goal totals to put the Wild ahead 5-1.

Taking over between the pipes for the Panthers, Spencer Knight started the third period.

Able to withstand any more goals, the Panthers were also held scoreless in the period, as the Wild took the 5-1 win in Sunrise.

“Obviously you don’t want to have nights like that, so we learn from that and move on,” said Bennett.

THEY SAID IT

“We just need to get back to our system and how we know how to play.” – Adam Boqvist

“We got to get a lot more wired before that next puck drops.” – Paul Maurice

CATS STATS

- Jesper Boqvist led the team with 9 hits

- Aaron Ekblad, Adam Boqvist, and Nate Schmidt each blocked two shots

- Dmitry Kulikov led the team with 22:31 time-on-ice

- Carter Verhaeghe had a team-high five shots on net

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Panthers will begin their three-game New York road trip against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden at 7:00 p.m. ET.

After that, they’ll pay visit to the New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres before heading to Finland.

To follow the action, visit FloridaPanthers.com/HowToWatch.