Vanecek shuts out Sabres in debut, Panthers win 6th straight game

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Vitek Vanecek made 21 saves for a shutout in his debut with the Florida Panthers in a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

The Panthers (40-21-3) have won six consecutive games.

“You look at the standings, and you might say ‘Hey, this should be easy.’ There was nothing easy about that game for our team,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “They were really good in the first period, and after the first shift of the third, I liked our third the best. That’s when we got really disciplined.’’

Vanecek, acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday, had not recorded a win since Nov. 29.

He is the third goalie in franchise history (Chris Driedger in 2019, Jose Theodore in 2011) to record a shutout in his first game with the Panthers.

“The shutout is nice, but I am really happy for the win,’’ Vanecek said. “Really good defense, they blocked a lot of shots for me, if there was a rebound they always cleaned it up. Really good.”

A.J. Greer, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell, and Sam Bennett each scored for Florida. Nate Schmidt had two assists.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 32 saves for Buffalo (24-32-6) which has lost six straight.

The Sabres were shorthanded after the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday, and were also missing some key pieces due to illness and injury including forwards Jordan Greenway, Jason Zucker, and Jiri Kulich.

“We didn’t take advantage of some of the plays we made,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “We had a 2-on-1, 3-on-1 … we had the opportunities to stay right in the game. They were being overaggressive and we created the opportunities.”

Florida took the lead at 7:20 of the first, Schmidt’s shot from the left side of the net getting between Luukkonen’s skates and behind him. Greer swept the puck into the back of the net.

Verhaeghe made it 2-0 at 9:32 of the second period, his point shot sailing through traffic and finding the left corner of the net.

Lundell’s goal was similar to the one scored by Greer in the first. He made it 3-0 at 17:09 of the second when Schmidt’s initial shot snuck through the legs of the Buffalo goalie. The puck slipped behind Luukkonen and Lundell was there to push it through.

“It was a game for [Vanecek], he made some big saves to keep us in the game,” Lundell said. “It’s always to fun to play in front of a guy who plays like that. We tried to help him as much as we could. Just a great team win for us, again. I think we just picked up from the last one.’’

Bennett scored into an empty net at 19:26 of the third for the 4-0 final.

The Sabres were held to three shots in the third period after getting off nine in each of the first two.

“It was a little too sporadic, not enough sustained pressure especially in the offensive zone,” Buffalo forward Alex Tuch said. “When we got around the net, we had some pretty good opportunities but weren’t able to capitalize. They are a very good team, a very patient team. … That’s why they’re the defending Stanley Cup champions. Everyone buys in, plays the same way, and plays the system to a T.”

It was the third shutout in four games for the Panthers, who became the 11th team in NHL history to allow just one goal in a four-game span.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were the last team to do it from Feb. 24-March 2, 2021.

Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida’s starting goalie, has two shutouts in his past three starts. He gave up a goal to the Lightning in a 2-1 win on Monday night.

NOTES: Aaron Ekblad has seven assists in a six-game assist streak, tying the longest assist streak in Florida’s franchise history. Brandon Montour did it last, during the 2022-23 season. … Florida leads the NHL with 29 wins when scoring first. … Aleksander Barkov became the third player in Panthers history to record four consecutive 60-point seasons, joining former linemate Jonathan Huberdeau, and current linemate Sam Reinhart. ... Forward Nico Sturm made his debut with the Panthers after being acquired from the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.