A.J. Greer had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart and Cole Schwindt also scored for the Panthers (5-5-0), who had lost five of six after opening the season with three straight wins.
Akira Schmid made 23 saves for the Golden Knights (5-1-2), who had won four straight and were on a seven-game point streak to open the season.
Vegas was also the only remaining team in the NHL yet to lose a game in regulation.
Florida is 4-1 against the Golden Knights since the 2023 Stanley Cup Final between the two, including 3-0 at home.
“We weren’t good enough,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Why was that? I don’t have a great [answer] for you right now. … We weren’t competitive enough, did not execute well enough and we saw that on both power plays. We barely got in their zone. We just didn’t make any plays with the puck, and sometimes that happens. … We don’t play well in this building for whatever reason.”
Reinhart gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 17:19 of the first period, opening the scoring on a breakaway goal.
Evan Rodrigues got the play started in the defensive zone, getting the puck to Carter Verhaeghe at center ice. Verhaeghe then found Reinhart at the blue line in front of Vegas defenseman Kaedan Korczak before he drove the net and beat Schmid with the forehand.
“It’s no surprise, [our defense] creates offense for us,” Reinhart said. “We can sit here and say it hasn’t been going in for us, but when we defend like that, that’s when opportunities come. Liked our effort defensively, we were on the right side of pucks, creating time and space for ourselves.’’
The two teams played a scoreless second period with Florida outshooting Vegas 12-5.
“They did a good job. We knew they were coming,’’ Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “They like to do the full-court press and be on top of us. They did a good job of that. There were times we handled it well, times that we did not.’’
Schwindt, who was making his season debut for the Panthers after being acquired off waivers from the Golden Knights on Oct. 3, extended it to 2-0 lead at 3:29 of the third period.
Schwindt put it past a downed Schmid through the legs of defenseman Zach Whitecloud from the left side of the net after Greer and Jonah Gadjovich hammered at the puck in front.
“I got to give all the credit to Gadjovich on the forecheck and Greer driving the net,” Schwindt said. “It just popped out to me, made my job easy. I just had to tap it in there. All the credit to those guys for working so hard to get there.”
