Trocheck helps Panthers to wins
Florida is 15-2-5 in games when he scores a point.
SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers again got the better of the NHL’s best team.
Jaromir Jagr scored early in the third period, helping lead the Panthers past the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 on Saturday night.
With the Panthers leading 3-2, Jagr slid in a loose puck behind Joonas Korpisalo for his eighth goal of the season, 1:27 into the third. The play was started on a rush from Vincent Trocheck, who put a shot on goal and watched Jared McCann first take a swing at it before Jagr netted the eventual winner.
“There was a part of the season I thought he was our best player and it was a smart decision from management to sign him for long term,” Jagr said of Trocheck, who was named Florida’s lone representative for the AllStar Game in Los Angeles.
The Panthers are 15-2-5 in games when Trocheck scores a point.
Shawn Thornton, Tro - check and Jonathan Marchessault also scored for Florida, and Trocheck, Aaron Ekblad, Jason Demers and Jakub Kindl had assists. James Reimer made 30 saves.
Columbus is 4-1 in its last 23 games, with two of the losses to the Panthers.
“We played a good game against the best team in the league right now,” Florida interim coach Tom Rowe said. “They’ve been playing unbelievable and they’re a big, strong, physical team and every shift they’re coming at you. I thought it was real good that our guys ... hung in there and did a great job.”
Boone Jenner scored his e i g ht h o f t he s e a s o n f o r Columbus at 6:17 to cut the defificit to 4-3, but the Blue Jackets couldn’t tie it.
Columbus coach John Tortorella didn’t sugarcoat the Trocheck goal on a bad-angle shot that hit the goalie and barely slid over the line, or Markus Nutivaara’s turnover that led to another Florida goal. “That’s a bad goal — the one on the goal line. Where the game changes is on a bad goal, then we giftwrap one on a turnover,” Tortorella said.
Notes: Rowe entered having coached 22 games for Florida, the same number as former coach Gerard Gallant, who was fifired Nov. 27 after a 3-2 loss at Carolina. Rowe is 9-7-7 through 23 games, while Gallant was 11-10-1 this season before being fifired. . . . Florida scratched centers Greg McKegg and Seth Griffiffith, who played wing on the top line in Friday’s 5-2 loss to the Islanders. ... The teams meet for the fifinal time on March 16 in Columbus.