Columbus – If you like goalkeeper fights and playoff style hockey, this was the game for you.
Back-top the Florida Panthers to two huge points, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 25 shots he faced in a 1-0 overtime victory at the Columbus Blue Jacket at the National Arena on Thursday.
Defeating his former team once again, Bobrovsky blanked the Blue Jacket with a 3-0 victory on March 6th.
“He put us in the game and gave us a chance,” Alexander Barkov said of Bobrovsky.
The Panthers have improved to 42-24-3 and continue to lead the Atlantic Division.
“Credit to Columbus, they have one of the best home records in the league and one of the best scoring teams in the league,” coach Paul Maurice said.
Despite the first period of scoreless, Florida left some pretty good ice about the play.
When they jumped out of the gate and set the tone, the lines of Carter Belharge, Alexander Barkov and Sam Reinhard had a 100% offensive advantage in the first period, with the Panthers leading 5-0 in goal, 4-0, 4-0, scored 5-5 in ice time.
Overall, Florida led 13-5 on goal 20 minutes later.
“We fought so hard,” Barkov said. “We supported each other, we tried to do those little plays in the zone.
The penalty kill, which was tested early on in a special team, kept the game scoreless early after Barkov went to the box on a trip call.
Taking another test, James Van Reamsdick found himself on the breakaway late in the first period, but he rang out the post to tie the score to zero.
It was the Panthers who controlled the first period, but the Blue Jackets turned the script over the majority of the second period.
Standing tall in the net while facing a string of shots and pressure, Bobrovsky stopped all 12 shots during the period to keep the Panthers on strike.
On fire, Bobrovsky sits 11-4-0 in his last 15 appearances.
“It was a good game,” Bobrovsky said. “It was a playoff style game. We played hard and played a good game.”
Switching momentum to the end of the period, the Panthers went for a man’s advantage, but were unable to cash after a few close chances.
The tie appears to have been broken midway through the third by Columbus, but references have determined that the pack was driven by Boon Jenner and that the game remains scoreless.
Another big step up during the penalty kill, and the Panthers endured a Blue Jacket power play at 12:25.
After Kirill Markenko sent the puck over the glass for delays in the game, he scored a penalty in the final minute of regulation, and the Panthers eventually worked overtime with that extra attacker.
