“He was great,” Bennett said of Balinsky, who was forced to step up in Seth Jones’ absence. “He’s doing really well there. It’s not easy to jump into a new position in the middle of the season, but it looks like he’s been there all year. Yeah, he’s made some great plays.”
Leading early in the third period, the Panthers held on to the penalty kill, ending with Tarasov hitting Alexander Ovechkin’s signature one-timer from the left circle.
Of Tarasov’s 23 saves in the win, NaturalStatTrick.com deemed six to be high-danger.
“Tally was unbelievable,” Greer said.
At 6:40 p.m., Anton Lundell scored an empty-net goal to extend Florida’s lead and win 4-2.
Adding another goal, Carter Verhaeghe sealed the 5-2 victory with his own empty-net goal, sending the fans to the exits with 32.9 seconds left.
In the third period, the Panthers took a 14-5 lead with scoring opportunities.
The defending Stanley Cup champions are 3-3-0 on road trips and currently sit at 25-19-3 in the standings.
“We held on,” Bennett said of his team’s strong finish. “That tends to happen sometimes when you’re leading, but we just kept playing hard. We kept putting pressure on them. They didn’t have a lot of great looks. That’s all you can ask for in the third period.”
they said it
“I know he scored a goal, which was great, but the rest of his game was also great. He got in the hole and broke up a lot of plays.” – Paul Maurice on Uvis Balinski
“We’ve got a good group of characters in this locker room. It shows we care. We showed up today. It was a solid all-around game from everyone.” – Sam Bennett on bouncing back from Friday’s loss to Carolina
cat statistics
– The Panthers improved to 14-7-1 after losing this season.
– Macky Samoskevic ranks second on the Panthers with 20 penalties.
– According to NaturalStatTrick.com, Daniil Tarasov scored a higher than expected 1.52 goals against.
– Anton Randell hit 13 of 19 (68.4%) from the faceoff circle.
– Cole Schwindt had a team-high four hits.
– Sam Bennett had a team-high 3 points (1G, 2A).
What’s next?
The Panthers return home for a one-game pit stop against Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks at Amerant Bank Arena starting Monday at 6 p.m. ET.
Click here for tickets.
