Hurricanes top Lightning again, stay tied with Panthers
on to win less than a month after he was playing for Boston College in the NCAA tournament.
Star center Aleksander Barkov and versatile forward Sam Bennett both scored in the first period, and Bennett and left wings Jonathan Huberdeau and Ryan Lomberg each scored in the second to pull away from the Blue Jackets at the BB&T Center. For the secondconsecutive night, the Panthers (30-12-5) led wire to wire to beat one of the worst teams in the league and gain ground in the tight Central Division race.
Florida, which moved into a tie with the Carolina Hurricanes for first place in the division on Monday, kept pace with the Hurricanes with their win Tuesday. Carolina beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1, in Tampa to stay even with Florida atop the Central, although the Hurricanes have played two fewer games than the Panthers, so they lead in points percentage. The Lightning slips three points back of Florida and Carolina, and the Panthers passed Tampa Bay for the second-best points percentage in the division.
With nine games left in the season, Florida is 10-3-1 in its last 14 and on pace for its best points percentage ever. The Panthers took a gamble Tuesday to trust Knight to debut in high-stakes contest and found the goalie can more than hold his own in the NHL.
Florida made most of the opening period easy on Knight. He didn’t face any particularly difficult situations for the first 13 minutes until Patrik Laine squared up an open shotfrom the right circle with 6:16 left in the first. The star winger tried to place a shot over Knight’s right shoulder and the 20-yearold batted aside the attempt. The crowd broke into a round of applause and spent most of the game celebrating its next potential star.
When the Panthers drafted Knight in 2019, they had spent years trying to figure out solutions for their perennially porous defense. Knight was regarded as one of the best American goaltending prospects ever, so Florida spent a first-round pick on him.
Less than two years later, the situation has drastically changed for the Panthers, although expectations haven’t for Knight. Florida signed Sergei Bobrovsky to a massive seven-year contract less than two weeks after drafting Knight and the goaltender is now entrenched as the starter.
Chris Driedger, ostensibly the backup goaltender, ranks fourth in the NHL in save percentage this year. They’ve formed one of the league’s best 1-2 punches in net.
While the Panthers were building their deep cache of goalies, Knight was playing up to his lofty expectations. He was a finalist for the Hobie Baker Award at Boston College this year and led the United States to a gold medal at the 2021 World Junior Championships in January with a 34-save shutout against Canada in the championship game. Last month, he signed a three-year, entry-level contract and the Panthers didn’t waste time getting him into a game.
Knight finished his first period with 10 saves on 11 shots and the only goal he gave up came on a power play when Jack Roslovic buried a rebound to cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1 with 3:44 left in the period. Roslovic briefly seemed to tie the game with 57 seconds left in the first, but his breakaway goal was wiped off the board when coach Joel Quenneville challenged and the officials determined the Columbus forward was offside.
When the chaos of his period was over, Knight retreated to the locker room and returned to shut out the Blue Jackets (1524-9) the rest of the way.
Nino Niedereitter, Jordan Staal and Steven Lorentz scored second-period goals to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 victory over the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.
Carolina remains tied for first place in the Central Division with thePanthers. The Hurricanes have played two fewer games.
Florida and Carolina open a two-game set on Thursday in Sunrise.
Jordan Martinook added an empty net goal with 2.2 seconds left. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 26 shots for the victory.
Brayden Point scored for Tampa Bay, which sits three points behind the division leaders in the Central with 10 games remaining.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 32 saves.
After a scoreless first period, Niederreiter opened the scoring 7:48 into the second period, cutting to the slot and taking a backhand feed from Vincent Trocheck before slipping a wrist shot into the top corner for his 16th of the season. Staal scored 25 seconds later.
Islanders 6, Rangers 1: Josh Bailey scored twice, Anthony Beauvillier had a goal and three assists, and the host Islanders beat the Rangers.
Jordan Eberle and JeanGabriel Pageau each had a goal and an assist, and Brock Nelson also scored. Semyon Varlamov stopped 25 shots to help the Islanders win their second straight and seventh in the last 10 to pull into a tie with Washington atop the East Division ahead of a stretch of three straight games against the Capitals.
Kevin Rooney scored for the Rangers, who had won four in a row and lost in
East
Washington N.Y. Islanders Pittsburgh Boston
N.Y. Rangers Philadelphia New Jersey Buffalo Central
Florida Carolina Tampa Bay Nashville Dallas Chicago Detroit Columbus West
Vegas Colorado Minnesota Arizona
St. Louis San Jose Los Angeles Anaheim North
Toronto Winnipeg Edmonton Montreal Calgary Vancouver Ottawa
GP W LOT Pts GF GA
46 29 13 4 62 163 141 46 29 13 4 62 133 106 46 29 14 3 61 159 132 44 26 12 6 58 127 110 46 23 17 6 52 152 124 45 20 18 7 47 128 162 45 14 25 6 34 115 157 46 12 27 7 31 111 156 GP W LOT Pts GF GA
47 30 12 5 65 152 126 45 30 10 5 65 146 108 46 30 14 2 62 153 121 47 25 21 1 51 126 132 44 18 14 12 48 125 111 46 21 20 5 47 129 144 47 16 24 7 39 105 148 48 15 24 9 39 117 163 GP W LOT Pts GF GA
45 32 11 2 66 150 100 43 30 9 4 64 154 101 44 28 13 3 59 137 117 46 20 21 5 45 123 146 43 19 18 6 44 124 135 45 18 22 5 41 120 152 42 16 20 6 38 114 127 46 14 25 7 35 103 147 GP W LOT Pts GF GA
45 28 12 45 27 15 44 27 15 43 19 15 45 19 23 38 17 18 46 16 26
5 3 2 9 3 3 4
61 147 120 57 144 120 56 141 121 47 126 123 41 118 133 37 103 122 36 126 166
For full standings and boxscores go to the eEdition at MiamiHerald.com.
TUESDAY
Florida 5, Columbus 1
Boston 2, Buffalo 0
N.Y. Islanders 6, N.Y. Rangers 1 Carolina 4, Tampa Bay 1 Pittsburgh 7, New Jersey 6 Detroit at Dallas, late
Toronto at Vancouver, late Anaheim at Los Angeles, late Colorado at St. Louis, ppd
regulation for just the second time in 12 games (8-2-2).
Bruins 2, Sabres 0:
Tuukka Rask recorded his first shutout of the season and Boston extended its winning streak to five games with a victory overhost Buffalo.
Rask made 32 saves including a highlight-reel save on Sabres rookie Dylan Cozens in the first period that helped give the Bruins their seventh win in nine games.
Brad Marchand and Connor Clifton scored for Boston, which held on to fourth place in the Eastern Division.
Penguins 7, Devils 6:
Jeff Carter picked up his first goal in Pittsburgh as part of a first-period deluge, and the host Penguins
WEDNESDAY
Nashville at Chicago, 7 Minnesota at Arizona, 9
San Jose at Vegas, 9:30 Montreal at Edmonton, 10 MONDAY
Florida 4, Columbus 2
Tampa Bay 3, Carolina 2 (OT) Dallas 3, Detroit 2, SO Nashville 5, Chicago 2 Edmonton 4, Montreal 1 Minnesota 5, Arizona 2 Ottawa 4, Calgary 2
Vegas 3, San Jose 2, SO
Thursday: Carolina, 7 (BSFL) Saturday: Carolina, 7 (BSFL)
Columbus 1 0 0—1 Florida 2 3 0—5
First Period—1, Florida, Barkov 19 (Marchment, Gusev), 6:52. 2, Florida, Bennett 6 (Duclair, Huberdeau), 7:06. 3, Columbus, Roslovic 10 (Bjorkstrand, Atkinson), 16:16 (pp). Penalties—Duclair, FLA (Hooking), 15:55; Gavrikov, CBJ (Elbowing), 16:49.
Second Period—4, Florida, Bennett 7 (Huberdeau, Duclair), 7:04. 5, Florida, Lomberg 2 (Vatrano, Nutivaara), 15:42. 6, Florida, Huberdeau 16 (Gudas, Duclair), 16:38. Penalties—Lomberg, FLA (Fighting), 7:06; Sherwood, CBJ (Fighting), 7:06.
Third Period—None. Penalties—Matteau, CBJ (Holding), 7:50.
Shots on Goal—Columbus
Florida 10-13-10—33.
Power-play opportunities—Columbus 1 of 1; Florida 0 of 2.
Goalies—Columbus, Korpisalo 9-12-7 (33 shots-28 saves). Florida, Knight 1-0-0 (34-33).
A—4,132 (19,250). T—2:26. Referees—Jean Hebert, Peter MacDougall. Linesmen—Ryan Daisy, Brandon Gawryletz.
11-15-8—34.
held on for a victory over New Jersey.
ELSEWHERE
Canadiens: Montrealgoaltender Carey Price will be out at least a week because of concussion protocols. Price was injured in the first period of Montreal’s 4-1 loss to Edmonton on Monday following a bump by Oilers forward Alex Chiasson. Jake Allen came on to start the second period and played the remainder of the game.
Price, the winner of the Hart and Vezina trophies in 2015 as the Most Valuable Player and top goaltender, had just returned to the lineup in Saturday’s 4-0 loss to Ottawa after missing six games with a lower-body injury.