Panthers hand Oilers third consecutive loss
SUNRISE, FLA. Roberto Luongo made 26 saves in his second start since missing nine games with a knee injury to lift the Florida Panthers over the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 on Thursday night. It was the Oilers’ third straight defeat.
Evgenii Dadonov, Nick Bjugstad, Jonathan Huberdeau and Colton Sceviour scored for the Panthers. Mike Hoffman and Vincent Trocheck each had two assists.
Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers, and Cam Talbot stopped 29 shots.
Edmonton closed to 2-1 on Draisaitl’s goal 23 seconds into the third period. Draisaitl redirected a pass from Connor McDavid and beat Luongo up high.
Huberdeau’s power-play goal from the left circle made it 3-1 at 3:43 of the third. Sceviour added an empty-netter with 49 seconds left.
Dadonov gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 6:45 of the second. He took a backhanded pass from Aleksander Barkov in front and slid the puck past Talbot while falling to the ice. Dadonov extended his point streak to a career-high nine games.
Bjugstad found a loose puck in front and poked it into the net at 8:12 of the second.
At Philadelphia, Shayne Gostisbehere scored on a one-timer 1:01 into overtime after Dale Weise tied the game with 2:13 left in regulation, and the Philadelphia Flyers rallied past the Arizona Coyotes 5-4 on Thursday night.
Scott Laughton had two goals and Travis Konecny also scored for the Flyers, who began a fivegame homestand — their longest of the season — after earning seven of a possible eight points on a fourgame trip out west.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Michael Grabner each had a goal and an assist, and Brad Richardson and Derek Stepan also scored for the Coyotes, who lost 5-2 at home to Philadelphia on Monday.
Jakub Voracek set up the gamewinner in the extra session with a pass to Gostisbehere in the slot, and the defenceman’s slap shot beat goalie Darcy Kuemper.
It appeared the Flyers were going to lose their third in a row at home until Weise tied it. Ekman-Larsson’s pass in the Arizona zone was intercepted by Gostisbehere. Weise broke toward centre ice on the turnover, and Gostisbehere fired a pass to Weise. He got in alone on Kuemper and beat him high to the glove side for his first goal of the season.
At Tampa, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves, Tyler Johnson broke a tie with 1:26 left, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Islanders 4-2 on Thursday night.
Vasilevskiy has allowed two or fewer goals in nine of 12 games.
Johnson scored from just outside the crease off a pass from Nikita Kucherov. Steven Stamkos added an empty-netter.
Tampa Bay, with the NHL’s best record at 12-3-1, also got goals from Mathieu Joseph and J.T. Miller.