RECAP: Knight makes 35 saves as Panthers cool off Kraken

SEATTLE -- Spencer Knight made 35 saves and Carter Verhaeghe scored a pair of goals as the Florida Panthers snapped the Seattle Kraken's winning streak at seven games with a 5-1 win at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.
"I try to go out and just play and not think," said Knight, who appeared in his 50th NHL game. "It's a long game. Every game's hard and every team has players that can make plays. That's the fun part, but also the challenging part. It's really just coming in and playing hockey."

Showing a lot of resilience in the win, the Panthers, who were already down to 19 skaters to start the game, lost both Patric Hornqvist and Radko Gudas to injuries early in the contest.
"Short to start and a couple guys go down," Panthers defenseman Marc Staal said. "I thought Knighter made some big saves early when [Seattle] was buzzing. It calmed us down and our special teams came up big. It was a good team win."
After Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer came way out of his net to deny a shot from Staal, Carter Verhaeghe collected a pass from Sam Bennett and fired the puck into the suddenly abandoned cage to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead at the 13-minute mark of the first period.
With Grubauer and Staal making contact prior to the goal, Seattle challenged the play for goaltender interference, but after a brief review officials confirmed the call on the ice. Per the NHL, the contact was incidental and "did not constitute goaltender interference."
Gaining a power play due to the failed challenge by the Kraken, the Panthers wasted no time doubling their lead. Following up on his own rebound, Verhaeghe pounced on the puck in the slot, turned around and fired a shot past Grubauer into the net to make it 2-0 at 13:26.
According to NHL Public Relations, Verhaeghe is just the fourth player in franchise history to score two goals in 26 seconds or less, joining Viktor Kozlov (0:07 on Feb. 10, 2004), Colton Sceviour (0:23 on March 30, 2016) and Jonathan Marchessault (0:26 on March 23, 2017).

"It's huge," said Verhaeghe, who leads Florida with 14 goals. "It gives us life on the bench. Any time you can get the first goal, it gives us a huge advantage, and we took advantage tonight."
Breaking through for the Kraken in the second period, Jared McCann, who suited up for the Panthers from 2016-2019, potted a rebound from on top of the blue paint to make it 3-1 at 1:53.
Less than four minutes later, Matthew Tkachuk set up shop in the slot and tipped a shot from Aaron Ekblad past Grubauer on the power play to put the Panthers up 3-1 at 5:51. Earning his 12th multi-point game of the campaign, Tkachuk ranks tied for fifth in the NHL in points with 34.
Called up from the AHL to help fill the void left by Aleksander Barkov's absence due to a non-COVID illness, Aleksi Heponiemi added to Florida's lead when -- after a great play by Eric Staal to get him the puck in a good spot -- he jammed a shot past Grubauer to make it 4-1 at 7:49.
Touching twine for the second consecutive game, Gustav Forsling helped the Panthers put the game out of reach for the Kraken when he scored on the power play to make it 5-1 at 13:02.
After turning aside 32 of 33 shots in Thursday's win at Vancouver, Knight was simply outstanding for the Panthers once again in Seattle. Improving to 8-3-3 on the season, the 21-year-old made six high-danger saves against the Kraken, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
"He looks identical in both games," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "He's just solid, square to the puck. Anything that got away from him, he had an answer for. One or two really, really good saves there, cross-seam saves that are hard to make. He gave us a nice bit of confidence and calm back there."
Now sitting at 12-9-4, the Panthers, who have gone 2-1-1 through the first four stops on their long five-game road trip, have moved up into the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

KEY QUOTES

"If you take the two goals out of his game, it was close to his best game. He was on that puck, hunted pucks, backchecked, worked and competed. He set a very, very high level for the rest of the group." -- Paul Maurice on Carter Verhaeghe
"It seems like we just keep finding a way to battle. It's tough losing all those guys. They're great players and help us a lot, but we found a way tonight. Hopefully they'll heal up for next game."-- Carter Verhaeghe on overcoming the loss of key players
"You can tell his confidence is getting higher and higher. He's just making hard saves look routine out there right now. Definitely huge for us, especially on a night like tonight where we're playing down." -- Marc Staal on Spencer Knight

CATS NOTES

• The Panthers have outscored the opposition 10-2 over their last two games.
  - Florida led Seattle 17-12 in high-danger shot attempts, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
  - Brandon Montour led the Panthers with three blocked shots.
  - Aaron Ekblad recorded his 201st career assist to tie Keith Yandle for sixth place on Florida's all-time list.
  - Nick Cousins led the Panthers with six shots on goal.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Panthers (12-9-4) will wrap up their five-game road trip with a matchup against the Winnipeg Jets (14-7-1) at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.