Panthers rally from down 3 in 3rd, top Hurricanes in shootout

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers rallied to tie the game with three straight goals in the third period on the way to a 4-3 shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.

The Panthers, who had never won a game after trailing by three with 10 minutes remaining, scored three goals in 9:02 to force overtime.

“I was pretty grumpy there with 10 minutes left,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We just needed one good thing to go. … [Brad Marchand] as he always does, we’re down 3, and he’s screaming, ‘We can do this!’ And he scores the first one. That was really the big one, gave us some life.”

Marchand pulled the Panthers within 3-1 at 10:16. Sam Bennett won the puck battle behind the net and found Marchand at the right side of the net, where he beat Brandon Bussi with a quick shot between the legs for his 20th goal of the season and fourth in four games.

“It’s not going to happen every night, but it’s nice when it does,” Marchand said. “The great thing about us is our depth. Every night, someone else comes through in big moments. I think that’s what makes us such a great team.”

Bennett then cut it to 3-2 at 17:35 with Sergei Bobrovsky pulled for the extra attacker, scoring off a rebound after Bussi stopped Evan Rodrigues at the side of the net, before Sam Reinhart tied it 3-3 with 42 seconds remaining.

Reinhart scored from in front by one-timing Marchand’s pass from below the goal line, again with Bobrovsky on the bench.

“You could feel it the whole way, right to the very end,” Bennett said. “Our team is really loud on the bench the whole game, involved in the game. There is no quit in this locker room. We truly believed, the whole game, that we could come back.”

Marchand, Bennett, and Reinhart each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (19-13-2), who have won four straight and seven of eight. Rodrigues had two assists, and Bobrovsky made 26 saves.

Reinhart and Rodrigues scored in the shootout.

Sebastian Aho scored twice, and Bussi made a career-high 38 saves but had his nine-game winning streak end for the Hurricanes (22-9-3), who had won five in a row. Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov each had two assists.

Jarvis left the game 20 seconds into overtime with an undisclosed injury after crashing into the left post at full speed while being pursued by Rodrigues on a drive to the net. Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said the injury did not look good and that Jarvis is “going to be out for a while.”

“I thought [Bussi] kept us in it. I didn’t really love the game,” Brind’Amour said. “Honestly, we should have won the game when you have a two-goal lead there, three-goal lead. But, two 6-on-5 goals … details just weren’t very good. We were kind of cheating for that next [goal] instead of doing it right. It cost us a point.”

Signed to a one-year contract by the Panthers on July 1, Bussi was claimed off waivers by the Hurricanes on Oct. 5 after the rookie spent all of training camp and the preseason with Florida.

The Panthers scored three goals on 15 shots against him in the third.

“Great win for us,” Maurice said. “We had not had much traction with the goalie out. To get two? Really, really good. Really good. There was nothing easy about winning that game tonight. We had plays we didn’t like, parts of the game we didn’t like. But we also had a bunch of things that just didn’t go for us.”

Jordan Staal gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 11:53 of the first period. After Carolina defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere’s shot was stopped by Bobrovsky, Staal hit the right post on the rebound, then put in the loose puck on his second attempt.

After Jarvis had a goal overturned at 15:02 of the second period when a video review by the NHL Situation Room determined he kicked the puck into the net, Aho pushed it to 2-0 at 1:27 of the third. He beat Bobrovsky through the five-hole from the top of the slot on a breakaway.

Aho scored his second of the game to make it 3-0 on the power play at 7:34. After Bobrovsky stopped Svechnikov at the right post, the rebound went right to Aho in the right circle, and he one-timed a shot to the stick side.

“It was a hard-fought battle with two good teams going at it,” Aho said. “We have to find a way to win that game. We’re up three goals, and things were kind of going our way. The first one, it is what it is. As a group, we have to find a way to win that game. But both games played good hockey. It’s a tough one.”

Marchand said the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions were confident they could come back.

“Teams that give up and teams that don’t is the difference between championship teams,” Marchand said. “… We’ve come back in bigger games than this, and know we can do it.”

With the score 3-2 and Bobrovsky on the bench with 1:00 remaining in the third, Florida center Anton Lundell stripped the puck from Svechnikov just inside the Panthers blue line with before he could go in on a breakaway with the net empty, allowing Reinhart to tie the game at the other end.

“That’s a great play, and it’s not an easy play against a really good player,” Bennett said. “He’s obviously not a defenseman, but he looked like he knew what he was doing back there. We don’t win the game if he doesn’t make that play. Huge play by him.”

NOTES: Marchand (33 games) became the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to reach 20 goals in a season at age 37 or older, behind only Alex Ovechkin (27 games in 2024-25; 31 games in 2022-23) and Brendan Shanahan (27 games in 2006-07). … Reinhart scored Florida’s latest tying goal since he scored with three seconds remaining against the Boston Bruins on Jan. 11. … It was the Panthers’ sixth third-period, three-goal comeback win in their history. … Bussi had tied Cam Ward (2008-09) for the longest winning streak in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history. … Aho recorded his 45th career multigoal game and moved past Kevin Dineen for third in Hurricanes/Whalers history. … Carolina center Jesperi Kotkaniemi had no shots on goal and played 10:32 in his return from missing five games with a lower-body injury.