Markstrom blanks Hurricanes in first start for Panthers since 2014

RALEIGH, N.C. – It’s been a minute for Jacob Markstrom.

Making his first start for the Florida Panthers in 4,955 days, the 36-year-old goaltender turned aside all 15 shots he faced in 1-0 overtime win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

Like he never left, right?

"I thought we played a great game,” Markstrom said. “Everyone, the whole lineup, you know, all four lines and all six D played really good. They made my job a lot easier."

Once the organization’s top prospect, Markstrom, who the Panthers selected in the second round (31^st overall) of the 2008 NHL Draft, has seen his career come full circle.

Initially traded by the Panthers to the Vancouver Canucks in 2013, the Gavle, Sweden native went on to also man the pipes for the Calgary Flames and New Jersey Devils.

This past summer, the Panthers reacquired him from New Jersey.

“Super stoked, super excited, that I am (back),” Markstrom said not long after the trade went down in July. “It’s a crazy business. But the same way I didn’t think I was going to get traded 12 years ago or however long it was, I didn’t think I was going to get traded back.”

Now back where it all began, Markstrom had a vintage performance in Raleigh.

In addition to recording his sixth career win in a season-opening game, Markstrom also became the fourth-oldest goalie in NHL history to post a shutout in a season opener.

Of his 15 saves, four were considered high-danger by NaturalStatTrick.com.

“He felt very calm back there,” said defenseman Gustav Forsling, who scored the game-winning goal with only 4.3 seconds remaining in overtime. “He made some unbelievable saves.”

Markstrom’s biggest stop of the game came just past the midway point of the second period when he denied Hurricanes star center Sebastian Aho on a shorthanded breakaway.

Trying to go five-hole, Aho came up empty.

“He was coming,” Markstrom said when asked to recall the sequence after the win. “We back-checked really hard. I thought he maybe felt that the back-checker was going to catch him. So, you know, I figured I'd just grab some ice, and he tried to go five-hole. I was fortunate enough to stop it."

Amazingly, that was only Carolina’s seventh shot of the game.

But that’s life when you play with the Panthers.

Now the final line of defense for one of the NHL’s top shot-suppression squads, Markstrom can expect more games like this.

Since 2022-23, the Panthers are allowing the seventh-fewest shots on goal per game in the NHL.

“That's tough,” Maurice said of Markstrom having to weather the ebbs and flows against Carolina. “He handled it like a veteran.”

Set to face a different kind of test in their second game of the season, the Panthers will face the young, hungry and high-flying San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET.