"They were going to check and make life difficult on us," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said of the pushback from Columbus. "We wasted energy being frustrated and not putting that energy into working a little harder to get to pucks and support pucks tonight."
Losing consecutive games for the first time since mid-December, the Panthers, who have dropped just five of their 28 games on home ice, still lead the Atlantic Division at 35-12-5.
"I think we had our opportunities throughout the game," Brunette said. "Our reaction time might have been a little slow. We probably wanted things a little easier. We didn't get to the areas we need to get to in order to create those second chances. It was going to be that type of game."
Breaking the ice against the Blue Jackets, Aleksander Barkov threaded a pass through the slot straight onto the stick of MacKenzie Weegar, who made a great read to jump up in the play and into position, for a goal on the doorstep to put the Panthers on top 1-0 at 8:33 of the first period.
Touching twine for the 13th time in his 11 games, Patrik Laine pulled the Blue Jackets even when he took a pass from Jakub Voracek and beat Jonas Johansson to make it 1-1 at 15:05.
In the second period, Boone Jenner broke the tie when he re-directed his team-leading 22nd goal of the season into the cage to put Columbus up 2-1 at 9:32. Adding to that lead just 3:12 into the third period, Gabriel Carlsson blasted a one-timer to increase Florida's deficit to 3-1.
Quickly getting that goal back, Jonathan Huberdeau, freed up thanks to some great stickwork from Barkov, skated in on Jean-Francois Berube and tucked in a goal to make it 3-2 at 6:52.
But that would be as close as the Panthers would get.
Going on the attack after killing off their fourth power play of the game, the Blue Jackets pushed their lead back to two goals when Cole Sillinger made it 4-2 at 9:47. Making things worse just 10 seconds later, Brendan Gaunce then followed suit with a goal of his own to make it 5-2 at 9:57.
"We just couldn't find the momentum," Weegar said. "Once we found it, they answered right back and got the momentum back for themselves. I thought at times we were right in that game, but they answered the bell quickly, scored a quick one and got momentum back on their side."
Pulling their goalie with over seven minutes left in regulation, the Panthers converted once on their 6-of-5 advantage when Sam Bennett potted a rebound to make it 5-3 at 13:41. But just 20 seconds after that, Oliver Bjorkstrand made it 6-3 with an empty-netter to stifle the comeback.
Making his debut with the Panthers and manning the crease for the first time since making a relief appearance for the Avalanche against the Rangers on Dec. 8, Johansson finished with 22 saves, while Berube turned aside 39 of 42 shots to pick up his third straight win for Columbus.
Continuing their homestand, the Cats will look to rebound against the Oilers on Saturday.
"We've been really good at home, so there's no excuses here," Huberdeau said confidently. "We've got to forget about these two [losses] and regroup. We know we're a good team."
Here are five takeaways from Thursday's loss in Sunrise…
