Hours after being named to the All-Star roster, Sam Reinhart scored a goal and an assist, leading the Florida Panthers to a 4-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.
The Panthers extended their winning streak to six games, while goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves, securing his fifth consecutive victory.
Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe added a goal and an assist, with Sam Bennett also finding the net.
The Panthers completed a season sweep of the defending champions, exacting revenge for last season’s five-game loss in the Stanley Cup Final and achieving their first win in Vegas since the Knights joined the NHL.
“I think maybe we needed a little adversity to really dig down and find a way,” Tkachuk said. “We had 20-plus guys that were completely dialed in from the start of the day today and wanted to get that job done. There’s no secret we don’t like these guys for what happened last year. That’s human nature. Especially coming into this building where a team has not had success lately and just wants to beat a team that ruined our summer last year. I thought the two games we played them have been two of our best of the season.”
This determination was evident despite the Panthers losing two key forwards — Evan Rodrigues to a lower-body injury and captain Aleksander Barkov to an upper-body injury — after the first period.
Florida’s special teams were pivotal, converting 3 of 6 power-play opportunities and successfully killing all six of Vegas’s power plays.
“It’s just the mindset of our team, just playing as hard as you can for the guy next to you, especially down two forwards; it was a big performance from all 10 of us that were able to pull through,” Tkachuk added.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored the lone goal for Vegas, which has lost six of its last seven games.
Knights goaltender Logan Thompson made 32 saves but has struggled to secure wins, losing three of his last four starts and 11 of 17 after starting the season 5-0. Thompson has allowed three or more goals in six of his last eight starts.
“Tonight we weren’t a great team defensively, some net-front goals against, we got to take care of those,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “The lack of winning affects everybody, the goaltender more so than most because he’s the last line of defense. But I think everyone could start to lose confidence or question things when you don’t win.”
Thompson’s confidence might have been momentarily boosted early when captain Mark Stone’s initial shot was blocked, but Dorofeyev was there to slam the rebound into an open net. It was the start Vegas needed to shake off Monday’s shutout loss at Seattle in the Winter Classic, dominating the action over the first eight minutes of the game.
But a penalty on William Carrier shifted momentum to Florida, with Bennett one-timing a rebound off the end boards for the Panthers’ first power-play goal of the night.
They scored another midway through the second period when Tkachuk’s redirect off Brandon Montour’s shot from the point slipped past Thompson.
Verhaeghe silenced the crowd with a little more than a minute left in the period when he pounced on a loose rebound to the left of Thompson, scoring his 20th of the season.
Reinhart sealed the win with his 25th goal of the season on a power play in the third, one-timing a pass from Tkachuk from the slot to finalize the score.
UP NEXT
- Panthers: Visit Colorado on Saturday.
- Golden Knights: Host the Islanders on Saturday.
