Verhaeghe breaks tie in 3rd, Panthers defeat Golden Knights

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Carter Verhaeghe scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and had an assist for the Florida Panthers in a 4-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

It was the first game between the teams since last season’s Stanley Cup Final; Vegas won the best-of-7 series in five games.

Verhaeghe put Florida in front at 6:10 of the third period on the power play when he took a pass from Brandon Montour and scored with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle to make it 3-2.

“They are a really good team and beat us last year, obviously,” Verhaeghe said. “It was an emotional game, but we wanted to get right back on track. It was nice to get to get the win.”

Montour, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk each had two assists for the Panthers (19-12-2), who lost their previous two games and four of five, including 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves.

“We did not care for our last game and that was more style than the result,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “The first period was stylistically about as close to the style we want to play, and you’re still with zeros. We needed something positive and we got some power plays, finished it the way we did. That’s the game we try to play.”

Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofeyev scored for the Golden Knights (21-9-5), who have lost three in a row and four of five. Jiri Patera, making his second consecutive start in place of the injured Logan Thompson (upper body), made 38 saves, including 20 in the first period.

Florida outshot Vegas 20-3 in the first.

“They were good for 20 minutes and it was a 0-0 game; that was the good news,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Florida is the type of team that throws a lot at the net and probably outshoot a lot of teams, but maybe do not outscore them. I was concerned at whether we would respond, [but] we did. We scored on the first shift of the second.

“The first 20 [minutes] was probably our worst of the year. We expected Florida to come out after the way their year ended, but we got better as the game went on.”

Stone gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 1:21 of the second period after Ivan Barbashev backhanded a feed from behind the net. The goal extended Stone’s point streak to four games (one goal, five assists).

Sam Bennett tied it 1-1 at 8:58 with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle that beat Patera to the short side. It was Bennett’s fifth goal of the season.

“We were playing a really solid game, so we knew it was just a matter of time until we got one,” Bennett said. “It was big that we were able to capitalize and start rolling after.

“… It had a little bit of a playoff feel to that game. It was an intense game – lots of hitting, lots of physical play. I thought that was a really solid 60-minute game from our group.”

Gustav Forsling gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead at 15:16when his low slap shot from beyond the left circle found its way through traffic.

Dorofeyev tied it 2-2 at 19:37, swiping Ben Hutton’s feed past Bobrovsky after it deflected off the stick of Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov in front.

After Verhaeghe put the Panthers in front, Sam Reinhart scored on a power play at 8:09 of the third when he spun and beat Patera from the right circle following a feed from Barkov for the 4-2 final.

“It is probably a good time for the [holiday] break,” said Stone, the Golden Knights captain. “It was not our best road trip, and we didn’t play enough 60-minute hockey in the three games. We have been through some adversity before, and we’ll be ready to go out of the break.”

NOTES: It was Verhaeghe’s 100th goal with the Panthers; he signed a two-year contract after leaving the Tampa Bay Lightning as a free agent in 2020. … Maurice will coach his 1,800th NHL game Wednesday at Tampa Bay. … Vegas center Jack Eichel’s franchise-record 12-game point streak ended (seven goals, 12 assists). … Patera was one save shy of tying the Golden Knights record for most in a period; Laurent Brossoit stopped 21 shots in the second against the Dallas Stars last season on Feb. 25. … Stone extended his road point streak to seven games (eight points; three goals, five assists). … Barbashev has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past 12 games.