ANAHEIM – More extra hockey.
Going beyond regulation for the third straight game to start their season, the Florida Panthers earned a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Sunday.
With the loss, the Panthers now sit at 1-0-2.
“We battled back to get the point,” forward Anton Lundell said. “We've been in a lot of tight games. We’re comfortable in those situations, and it's good to get comfortable on them.”
Getting a major boost the day after captain Aleksander Barkov (lower body) was placed on LTIR, Brad Marchand returned to action for the Panthers and made his season debut in Anaheim.
His first game with the Panthers since March 6 of last season, Marchand, who underwent surgery in August, scored the game-tying goal in his return and saw 13:10 of ice time.
“It was great to be back out there,” said Marchand, who played on a line with Sam Reinhart and Brady Tkachuk. “It's going to take some time to get the timing of everything back and conditioning back, but it was incredible being back out there and being part of the team.”
Sent to the power play after the Panthers were whistled for too many men, the Ducks opened the scoring when Cutter Gauthier took advantage of a screen in front Jacob Markstrom and fired a shot into the far right corner of the net to make it 1-0 at 16:18.
But that lead would be short-lived.
Less than a minute later, the Panthers managed to get the game right back to even when Carter Verhaeghe – capitalizing on some chaos around Anaheim’s crease after a shot from Sam Bennett – sent a rebound past Lukas Dostal to make it 1-1 at 17:09.
Dostal finished with 29 saves, while Markstrom made 18.
Drawing a penalty at the end of the first period, the Ducks made the Panthers pay just 47 seconds into the second. Finishing off a nifty tic-tac-toe sequence, Gauthier ripped a shot into the twine from the slot to make it 2-1 with his second power-play goal.
Despite being held to one goal for much of the game, the Panthers likely deserved more as they led 35-25 in scoring chances and generated 4.39 expected goals in all situations.
But in a tight game, they had 20 shots block and passing lanes were hard to find against the Ducks.
“We’ve played three tight games so far,” Lundell said. “We're trying to get pucks in and, they did a good job getting in shot lanes and boxing out the side in front. We’ve got to find a way to get the special teams going and get more shots.”
Coming up empty on a late power play in the third period, the Panthers kept pushing.
After pulling Markstrom to gain a late 6-on-5 advantage, Marchand pounced on a rebound after a point shot from Lars Eller and lifted the rubber into the cage to make it 2-2 at 18:10.
In the extra frame, the Panthers found themselves on the penalty kill.
Despite a few incredible saves from Markstrom – including a highlight-reel robbery on Beckett Sennecke – Mikael Granlund eventually broke through with just under 30 seconds left on the man advantage with a tip-in goal to lock in the 3-2 win at 4:14.
“I think we've handled the third periods in games,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “We've trailed pretty well. I think we've given up three shots and we're pushing pretty good there in the third period. So, I like that. I didn't think we tried to open the game or shoot the game to get going a little bit. That's a really important characteristic to have an understanding of.”
THEY SAID IT
“He's a huge part of our team. He's such a good guy on and off the ice. He’s a great player and to get that kind of boost was awesome. Happy to see back on the ice. It's great.” – Anton Lundell on getting Brad Marchand back in the lineup
“Six months since I played a game. Only this game for a month now, so I kind of bring them down a little bit just with my timing and my speed and all that. We’re working through that together, but when I get back there to speed, I think we have great potential to be a really good line” – Brad Marchand on playing with Sam Reinhart and Brady Tkachuk
“I thought we were a real strong 5-on-5. I think we have been for our first three games, so we're comfortable there.” – Paul Maurice on Florida’s play at even strength
CATS STATS
- Anton Lundell won 64.7% of his faceoffs.
- Seth Jones saw a team-high 28:35 of ice time.
- Garnet Hathaway had a team-high six hits.
- The Panthers surrendered only three shots in the third period.
- Florida led 50-32 in shot attempts at 5-on-5.
- Jacob Markstrom made six high-danger saves.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Panthers will close out their season-opening road trip with a matchup against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.
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