Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Panthers 4 points out of 3rd
Florida Panthers interim coach Tom Rowe said that James Reimer started consecutive games for the first time this season because he, “earned it.”
After Saturday’s outstanding performance in net in Florida’s 3-1 win over Dallas, Reimer may earn a few more starts after the New Year’s break when the Panthers begin a threegame homestand with the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.
“I thought our team battled hard; they got no second chances,” said Reimer, who made 35 saves, including 20 in the third period when the Stars were making a huge push. “That’s big for a goalie. You try to stop the first one and your teammates take care of the rest.”
Despite winning just their second game in regulation Saturday since Nov. 19, the Panthers find themselves starting 2017 just four points behind the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division, while playing one fewer game.
That’s because they’ve notched at least a point in seven of their past eight games and 12 of their last 16.
“When you lose and let leads slip, it sucks, but the next day you look back and you wound up with a point,” said Reimer, who has given up just seven goals in his past four starts. “You keep getting points every night, you keep yourselves in the race. When we put together a game like this, you keep climbing. As frustrating as it was the last little bit, at the same time we’re getting points and can look back at the positives.”
It often takes several games for newly formed lines to establish a rapport with each other, but with top-line center Aleksander Barkov sidelined for the next couple of weeks, Rowe reaped instant dividends when he moved Vincent Trocheck up to play with Jaromir Jagr and Seth Griffith.
Just 3:06 after the opening faceoff, Trocheck gathered in a blocked shot from Jagr and scored his 11th goal. Jagr’s assist was No. 1,135, tying him with Paul Coffey for fifth on the alltime list.
The Panthers would add on two power-play goals 1:08 apart to take a commanding 3-0 lead after one that they wouldn’t relinquish.
At 15:32, Jussi Jokinen, who was reunited with Reilly Smith — back from a two-game concussionforced absence, took a onetouch feed from Trocheck for a one-timer for the ultimate winner.
At 16:40, Jon Marchessault’s cross-ice pass to Jagr resulted in a wrist shot past Antti Niemi, who was pulled. It was Jagr’s seventh goal of the season, 756th of his career and it snapped a nine-game drought.
“When we are losing and missing so many good players it’s key to score on the power play,” Jagr said. “We did in the first period and got the lead and kind of played from there.
“We’ve been losing lots of games in overtime or shootouts, but had the lead going into the third period and always was losing the lead . ... For the first time in a while we kept the lead. It wasn’t very pretty, but …
“It’s tough to play when you have the lead. You don’t want to make risky plays but that gives them an opportunity to come to you over and over. Nobody knows the perfect play when you have the lead. If you play the same way and they score on you everybody says we should’ve played a little more defense, so it’s not easy.”
Saturday was only the third game this season in which the Panthers scored more than one power-play goal.
“The puck movement was unbelievable,” Rowe said. “I was never overly concerned with the power play. I know it didn’t look good in the stats but you could see it coming.”