Closing out the scoring explosion in the second period, Sam Reinhart took a tap pass from Tkachuk, who went flying through the slot to make it happen, and fired a shot into the back of the cage to put the Panthers up 7-2 at 16:25.
In the third period, the Panthers shut the door.
Finishing with 21 saves, Bobrovsky only had to face four shots in the final frame.
Even with a big lead, the Panthers never took their foot off the gas.
“It doesn’t matter what the score is, we have to play our style for all 60-plus minutes of the game,” Tkachuk said. “It was one of those games tonight where we had the lead for most of it and played very well with it, and even in the third some of the habits were good.”
THEY SAID IT
“Just to get him feeling good about being back. There’s always some anxiety when you’re out for a while, and also our bench appreciates that. The minutes were right on our blue line.” – Paul Maurice on Aaron Ekblad scoring in his return
“Tomorrow is coming quick with 5 o’clock game. We travel tonight to Vegas and will play less than 24 hours from the start of tonight. It’s going to be a tough back-to-back. For us to keep the positive momentum and build good habits is going to help us.” – Matthew Tkachuk on closing out the road trip against the Golden Knights
“Every guy’s got a hand in every game, no doubt about it.” – Aaron Ekblad on tonight's win
CATS STATS
- Aleksander Barkov registered his 751st career point and to surpass Olli Jokinen (750) for the fourth-most points by a Finnish player in NHL history.
- Matthew Tkachuk collected his 70th multi-point game as Panther, moving him past Nathan Horton (69) for the eighth most in franchise history.
- Uvis Balinskis had a team-high four hits.
- Gustav Forsling, Nate Schmidt and Jesper Boqvist all finished with a +3 plus/minus rating.
- Tomas Nosek won a team-high 11 faceoffs.
- Sergei Bobrovsky made six high-danger saves, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
WHAT’S NEXT?
It’s three down and one to go.
Wrapping up their four-game road trip, the Panthers will face-off against the Vegas Golden Knights in a rematch of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
To find a place to watch the game in South Florida, click HERE.