SUNRISE, Fla. - The Devils went blow-for-blow with the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. But a perfect performance from Cats goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was the difference in a 1-0 Florida victory at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night.

Bobrovsky stopped all 30 shots he faced to record the shutout.

Sam Reinhart scored at 12:58 of the first period and it was the difference in the game.

"I thought it was a pretty even game for the most part," head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We have to do a little more to find some offense. We have to get one over the line with the chances that we get. We played a pretty hard road game here today. Their goalie was really good and they got a world class goal from a world class player. That's the difference."

Here are some observations from the game:

• Florida posted nine shots in the first period, but seven of them were of the high-quality variety. Goalie Jake Allen really stepped up for the team with some huge saves. That includes stopping both Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart on breakaways. The save on Reinhart came in the final seconds of the period to keep it a 1-0 game. Allen certainly did his part.

Keefe: "Jake was outstanding. The goalie was playing so well at the other end and you have no room for error, especially already down one. He was solid. He gave us an opportunity. That's all you can ask for from that perspective."

• The Devils shuffled the lineup a bit in the third period. They put Timo Meier back with Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt while dropping Arseny Gritsyuk down with Dawson Mercer and Connor Brown.

They also swapped the top two defensive pairings:

Hughes – Nemec
Siegenthaler – Dillon

Keefe: "You're in search of a goall so you have two (Hughes, Nemec) offensive minded people that can work together. That's really it. Dougie and Cholowski is our next best offensive option. It's just trying to keep like-minded people playing with our better people and manufacture a goal."

• Devils captain Nico Hischier was robbed by goalie Sergei Bobrovsky at the end of the second period. Hischier’s shot was stopped just as the period was expiring. Hischier tried to follow up that shot with a rebound try, but it came after the buzzer.

Florida’s Evan Rodrigues took exception to the post-buzzer shot attempt and got in Hischier’s face. But the Devils captain responded by grabbing Rodrigues and landing several blows, including a few uppercuts. Rodrigues was not ready for that and simply took the beating.

It’s nice to see the captain standing up for himself. Maybe let out a little bit of frustration, too.