Win streak reaches four as Panthers stop Flyers
SUNRISE — Seventy-five days before the Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, on Thursday night, optimism hovered in the air around the young hockey season. Just four games into the season, the hope of a new season dissipated any feelings from a down season the year before in Sunrise.
But the losses stacked. The defense leaked. The offense dried up. The top goalie was hurt. Even through it all, with Thursday night’s win, the Panthers reclaimed what they had on Oct. 14: a .500 record.
Jared McCann, Derek MacKenzie and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for the Panthers (16-16-5, 37
points), who notched their season-high fourth consecutive victory by beating the Flyers. The win starts off a key stretch of games for Florida that can nudge them into playoff contention or bury them farther from a postseason berth.
James Reimer continued his stellar play by making 28 saves, backstopping his way through a 10th consecutive start. He hadn’t given up a goal since the second period of Florida’s 4-2 win over Minnesota on Dec. 22 before Flyers forward Scott Laughton scored at 12:28 of the third period.
The goalless streak ended at 141:54.
Florida’s penalty kill unit starred on Thursday, killing four penalties and even scoring a shorthanded goal when MacKenzie cracked the score sheet at 9:19 of the second period. It was MacKenzie’s first goal of the season and came after Colton Sceviour cleared the zone and set him up with a nice centering feed.
Huberdeau scored in the third straight game, as Panthers coaches ask him to shoot more and more. His second-period shot snuck underneath the top corner of the goal, an impressive goal that gave Florida a three-goal lead. He now has four goals in the last three games after scoring just one in his previous 10.
As Huberdeau stayed hot, Jared McCann snapped his streak of cold shooting by whipping a shot past Philadelphia goalie Brian Elliott to open the scoring. He entered Thursday goalless on his last 32 shots, which spanned 13 games.
But the antidote was to take on the Flyers singlehandedly. McCann went up-ice along the boards on the left side of the neutral zone, then cutting inside past Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds and over the blue line. He swiveled his hips and fired from the high slot. The puck deflected off Elliott and found the back of the net.
The performance allowed the Panthers to gain two points on the Flyers in the distant chase for the Eastern Conference’s second wild card spot. And Philadelphia’s not Florida’s only chance to gain valuable ground.
Montreal comes to Sunrise on Saturday. The Panthers visit conference foes Boston, Detroit and Columbus on an upcoming road trip. A date against the Canadiens would allow the Panthers to hold a winning record for the second time this season.
Should Florida continue its roll, it may resemble the very team it beat on Thursday. Philadelphia lost 10 games in a row, but then immediately won six straight.
“Whenever you look at it, they’re the same team so they’re playing the same game, it’s just a little but more confidence in the winning streak than they had during the losing streak,” Trocheck said recently. “We talk about that a lot in this locker room the whole year. It’s a matter of us getting our confidence.”
Before the game, Panthers coach Bob Boughner reference how Florida played early this season. It beat Tampa Bay. It beat St. Louis. It fired 46 shots on Pittsburgh on the road. He liked how the team played early on.
He’ll think about those games and what worked. He’ll review video from then and regurgitate it to players, either individually or as a team. Although the shot totals from Thursday didn’t mirror the gaudy numbers from early, the Panthers were able to finally return to .500.
But the team realizes there’s still work to do to climb the standings.
“To get where we want to be,” Boughner said, “we’re going to have to put in fouror five-game, six-game streaks.”