Luongo plays hero with his timely zero
SUNRISE – When all of the pieces are clicking, it’s easy to see why the Florida Panthers entered the season with such high expectations.
With Roberto Luongo back in goal and multi-point games from Mike Hoffman, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Keith Yandle, the Panthers cruised past the Boston Bruins 5-0 at the BB&T Center.
After missing the previous five games with a right knee injury, Luongo recorded 33 saves and his first shutout of the season to anchor the Panthers defense. It was the 39-year-old’s first action since tweaking his knee during the team’s Nov. 23 contest at Carolina.
Offensively, the Panthers (11-10-5) erupted for four unanswered goals in the second pe-
riod to storm ahead of Boston (14-9-4). Huberdeau notched his sixth consecutive multi-point game, totaling one goal and two assists to help propel the Panthers.
The 25-year-old forward, who’s spent his entire seven-year career with Florida,
moved into sole possession of fourth place on the team’s all-time points list. With 298 points, Huberdeau passed Nathan Horton to move up the leaderboard.
Continuing his great start to the season after being acquired this summer, Hoffman tallied two goals, giving him 14 for the season. His first came four minutes into the second period after
burying a rebound that lingered in front of the net.
Hoffman closed out the second period with a bang, delivering a slap shot past Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak off a great pass from Barkov with just over three seconds left. For Hoffman, it marked his fifth multi-point game of the season.
Barkov notched three assists on the night, while
Yandle dished out two. The biggest highlight from the evening, though, came courtesy of Mike Matheson. The defenseman went end to end, evading a defender as he sped down the right wing and fired in his second goal of the season left-handed to continue Florida’s second-period onslaught.
Evgenii Dadonov concluded the scoring with his 13th point of the season.
Despite struggling to start the season, the Panthers are beginning to play better as of late. Florida has recorded six points through the first six games of its current eight-game homestand.
The Panthers are back in action Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche.